'^ 


OF 


PW«^ 


MAY  23  1957 

:BS2A2\ 
.374 


/ 


MAY  23  1957  ]* 


% 


STUDIES 


OF 


THE  MAN  CHRIST  |ESUS 


ROBERT  E.  SPEER 

SECRETARY   OF   THE   PRESBYTERIAN   BOARD   OF    FOREIGN    MISSIONS 

AUTHOR   OF    '    STUDIES   IN   THE   GOSPEL  OF   LUKl^  '    "  STUDIES 

I.'   THE   BOOK   OF   ACTS " 


"  One  mediator  between  God  and  men, 

the  man  Christ  Jesus." — i  tim.  il.  5,  A.  V« 


New  York       Chicago       Toronto 
Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

Publishers  of  Evangelical  Literature 


f 


Copyright,  1896,  by 
Fl£ming  H.  Revell  Company, 


t 

/ 
I 


PREFACE 

This  little  book  lays  no  claim  to  originality.  It  grew 
out  of  a  study  of  the  Gospels  inspired  by  Bushnell's 
Character  of  Jesus  Forbidding  His  Possible  Classification 
with  Men.  The  longing  of  our  time  to  know  more  per- 
fectly the  character  of  "  the  man  Christ  Jesus,"  while  not 
losing  the  vital  faith  of  His  deity,  is  prompting  ever  more 
and  more  such  study. 

These  studies  were  undertaken  with  no  thought  of 
making  this  little  book,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  college 
students  who  gather  each  summer  at  Northfield,  and  to 
whom  the  picture  of  Jesus  presented  here  proved  helpful, 
both  strengthening  faith  in  His  real  deity,  and  increasing 
admiration  for  His  perfect  and  glorious  humanity.  Later 
these  studies  were  reviewed  with  a  group  of  British  stu- 
dents at  Keswick,  and  with  little  companies  at  Rutgers 
and  Bryn  Mawr  colleges.  They  are  published  now  at  the 
"•quest  of  some,  not  so  much  for  general  reading  as  for 
the  use  of  Bible  classes,  especially  of  college  students,  and 
for  others  who  love  to  discover  ever  fresh  angles  from  which, 
in  their  own  study  of  the  Gospels,  they  may  view  the  sweet 
face  of  Jesus. 

The  references  throughout  are  to  the  Revised  Version. 
The  bibliography  of  the  life  of  Christ  is  too  well  known 
to  need  mention  here.  The  student  should,  however, 
have  his  attention  called  specially  to  Bushnell's  Character 
of  Jesus  and  Young's  Christ  of  History,  which  should  be 
studied  with  these  lessons.  Of  other  books,  those  quoted 
in  the  studies  will  prove  helpful.  The  studies  are  broken 
as  they  are  into  short  chapters  and  sections  to  make  them 
more  easy  of  use  in  classes. 

Of  such  a  study  as  this  there  is  a  twofold  fruit:  (i)  A 
reason  for  the  Christian  faith.  Jesus  Himself  is  the  great 
apologetic.  There  is  no  prejudice  against  Him.  His 
beauty  and  sincerity  are  acknowledged  by  all.  We  are 
on  common  ground  with  Unitarian,  agnostic,  infidel,  and 
atheist  in  praising  His  loveliness.  Have  they  any  right  to 
part  company  with  us  as  we  see  how  lovely  He  was,  and 
7 


8  PREFACE 

draw  the  inferences  from  the  perfection  of  His  loveliness? 
For  Jesus  was  such  a  man  that  He  must  have  been  more. 
He  was  "  the  man  Jesus,"  but  He  was  *'  the  man  Christ 
Jesus  "-—the  one  anointed  and  sent,  the  heaven-born.  An 
understanding  study  of  Him  excludes  Him  from  the  class 
of  natural  phenomena.  Whoso  begins  with  the  acknow- 
ledgment, "  This  was  a  righteous  man,"  cannot  stop  short 
of  the  confession,  "  Surely  this  man  was  the  Son  of  God." 
(2)  An  example  for  the  Christian  life.  Such  a  study  pre- 
sents the  full  "  Imago  Christi."  It  reveals  Jesus  as  He 
revealed  the  Father.  Each  new  trait  seen  in  Jesus  is  a 
new  obligation  incurred.  "If  I  had  not  come  and  spoken 
unto  them,"  He  said  of  the  Jews,  "  they  had  not  had  sin : 
but  now  they  have  no  excuse  for  their  sin  "  (John  xv.  22). 
What  is  shown  us  in  Christ  is  shown  for  our  appropria- 
tion. "What  things  ye  see  and  hear  in  me,  do,"  were 
the  words  of  His  greatest  follower,  but  they  are  His 
words.  Increasing  knowledge  of  Jesus  requires  increas- 
ing imitation  of  Jesus.  The  study  of  His  life  is  perilous 
to  the  insincere.  For  those  who  long  to  be  like  Him  it  is 
both  duty  and  delight. 

All  study  of  Jesus  demands  a  reverent  use  of  the  ima- 
gination. We  are  sometimes  told — the  suggestion  com'es 
from  different  quarters — that  the  province  of  imagination 
in  religion  is  limited;  but  surely  religion  is  the  proper 
sphere  for  the  freest  exercise  of  imagination.  In  a  true 
sense,  as  Bushnell  contends  in  a  fine  essay,  our  gospel  is  a 
^ft  to  the  imagination.  And  in  Modern  Painters  Mr. 
Ruskin  asks,  "  What  are  the  legitimate  uses  of  the  ima- 
gination ;  that  is  to  say,  of  the  power  of  perceiving  with 
the  mind  things  which  cannot  be  perceived  by  the  senses? 
Its  first  and  noblest  use  is  to  enable  us  to  bring  sensibly 
to  our  sight  the  things  which  are  recorded  as  belonging  to 
our  future  state  or  invisibly  surrounding  us  in  this.  It  is 
given  us  that  we  may  imagine  the  cloud  of  witnesses  in 
heaven  and  earth  and  sea  as  if  they  were  present— the 
souls  of  the  righteous  waiting  for  us ;  that  we  may  con- 
ceive the  great  army  of  the  inhabitants  of  heaven,  and  dis- 
cover among  them  those  whom  we  most  desire  to  be  with 
forever ;  that  we  may  be  able  to  vision  forth  the  ministry 
of  our  God  beside  us,  and  see  the  chariots  of  fire  on  the 
mountains  that  gird  us  round ;  but,  above  all,  to  call  up 
the  scenes  and  facts  in  which  we  are  commanded  to  believe, 
and  be  present,  as  if  in  the  body,  at  every  recorded  event 
of  the  history  of  the  Redeemer  "  {Frondes  Agrestes,  $9, 
Section  II.)- 


PREFACE  9 

We  do  not  enough  picture  to  ourselves  the  earthly  life 
of  Christ  as  a  real,  human  life.  There  is  no  little  uncon- 
scious Docetism  in  Christian  thought  still.  We  must 
believe,  however,  that  our  Lord  took  upon  Himself  our 
human  nature  in  a  real  sense,  or  the  incarnation  would  not 
be  a  real  incarnation ;  Jesus  could  not  have  been  tempted 
in  all  points  as  we  are,  and  He  could  not  have  wrought 
out  for  us  a  salvation  in  any  such  vital  sense  as  can  alone 
constitute  a  salvation.  But  for  the  discussion  of  the  per- 
son and  nature  of  Christ  the  reader  should  study  Du 
Bose's  Soteriology  of  the  New  Testament. 

Paul  settles  the  matter  for  us :  "  There  is  one  God,  one 
mediator  also  between  God  and  men.  Himself  man,  Christ 
Jesus  "  (i  Tim.  ii.  5).  Let  us  look  upon  His  life  as  the 
life  of  the  Son  of  man.  Let  it  live  again  before  us.  Trans- 
port it  into  modern  times,  conditions,  and  forms.  Do 
anything  reverent  to  break  the  shackles  of  formalistic  and 
unscrutinized  conception,  that  we  may  see  Him  as  He 
was,  and  follow  Him  until,  when  "  He  shall  be  manifested, 
we  shall  be  like  Him ;  for  we  shall  see  Him  as  He  is  " 
(i  John  iii.  i). 


CONTENTS 


I 

PAGE 

The  Early  Life  of  Jesus 15 


II 

His  Plans  and  Methods  of  Work 

I.  He  undertakes  to  organize  on  earth  the  king- 
dom of  God 28 

II.   His  plans  were  immense  and  revolutionary. . .  32 

III.  His  project  covered  ages  of  time ^^ 

IV.  The  originality  of  His  plan 34 

V.  The  audacity  of  His  plan 37 

VI.  He  began  with,  and  worked  from,  the  poor.  .     40 
VII.   He  set  for  Himself,  reached,  and  placed  be- 
fore others  a  perfect  standard 43 

VIII.   His  ability  to  impart  spiritual  ideas 47 

IX.   He  knew  and  touched  the  personalities  of  men.     50 
X.   In  the  prosecution  of  His  work  He  was  chari- 
table, but  no  liberal 51 

XI.   He  was  never  anxious  for  His  success 53 

XII.   He  was  easy  of  approach,  but  held  Himself 
completely  independent,  superior  to  human 

intercessions  and  judgments 57 

XIII.   He  was  never  caught  off  guard,  never  vexed, 

disconcerted,  hastened,  or  irritated 62 

XIV.  His  management  of  men 67 


I 


12  CONTENTS 

PAG8 

XV.  His  little  personal  ways,  so  human,  yet  so 

faultless 69 

XVI.  The  generous  freeness  and  selflessness  of  His 

deeds 72 


III 

Some  Active  and  Passive  Traits  of  His  Character 

I.   Sincerity 75 

II.   Simplicity   77 

III.  Humility 79 

IV.  His  unselfishness  and  personal  dignity 82 

V.   His  love  and  generosity  toward  those  who 

were  alien  or  hostile  to  Him 87 

VI.  Tenderness 89 

VII.  The  perfect  calm  and  evenness  of  His  life 94 

VIII.  His  broad  human  knowledge  and  interest  in 

nature 99 

IX.  The  universality  of  His  character 105 

X.  The  perfect  balance  of  His  character 119 


IV 


The  Testimony  Borne  to  Him  by  the  Different 
Relations  into  which  He  Came 

I.  The  testimony  of  need  to  His  power  to  supply.    131 
II.  The  testimony  of  nature  to  His  right  to  com- 
mand      134 

III.  The  testimony  borne  to  Him  by  His  attitude 

toward  woman 135 

IV.  He  was  free  from  the  superstitions  of  His 
time  and  the  current  distortions  of  the  reli- 
gious life 137 

V.   He  called  forth  the  instinctive  obedience  of 

others 142 

VI.  The  impressions  He  produced  upon  others  . .    145 
VII.  The  better  He  was  known,  the  greater  was 

His  acknowledged  superiority 150 


CONTENTS  X3 


V 

Other  Extraordinary  Characteristics  of  Christ, 
Most  Easily  Explicable  by  the  Belief  in  His 
Divinity 

PAGE 

I.   He  presents  the  perfect  ideal  of  friendship    ...    i6i 
II.   His  piety  was  unrepentant,  and  yet  sustained.    169 

III.  The  strength  and  strangeness  of  His  emotions.   181 

IV.  His  superhuman  knowledge 198 

V.  He  recognized  and  asserted  His  own  unique- 
ness       201 

VI.   His  prayerfulness 213 

VII.   His  venturesome  prophecies 217 


VI 
His  Bearing  at  His  Trial  and  Death 221 

VII 

The  Significance  of  the  Man  Christ  Jesus..  233 

Questions  for  the  Study  of  Bible  Classes  .,  246 


THE  EARLY  LIFE  OF  JESUS 


tS 


\ 


THE    EARLY  LIFE    OF   JESUS 

Of  the  early  life  of  Jesus  very  little  is  known. 
He  never  referred  to  it  Himself,  and  two  of  the 
four  Gospels  are  silent  regarding  it.  He  must 
have  known,  of  course,  the  place  of  His  birth, 
but  He  never  spoke  of  it.  One  of  the  objections 
made  to  the  vaHdity  of  the  claims  He  put  forth 
was  that  He  was  not  born  in  that  part  of  the 
nation  where,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  He  was  born ; 
but  neither  He  nor  His  disciples  ever  corrected 
the  erroneous  impression  that  prevailed  (John 
vii.  41,  42,  52).  He  never  mentioned,  in  the 
records  of  His  hfe  which  are  preserved,  the  won- 
derful stories  of  the  manner  of  His  birth  which 
are  told  in  the  gospels  of  Matthew  and  Luke; 
nor  is  any  allusion  made  to  it  in  the  other  writ- 
ings of  the  New  Testament. 

All  that  we  are  told  directly  of  His  life,  from 
the  time  the  family  settled  in  Nazareth,  after  the 
visit  to  Egypt  and  the  death  of  Herod,  until  His 
appearance  in  public  life  about  thirty  years  later, 
we  are  told  by  the  Gospel  which  was  written  chiefly 
for  Gentiles,  and  which  represents  the  oral  gos- 
pel preached  by  the  Apostle  Paul,  who  may  or 
may  not  have  made  use  of  this  material  in  his 
preaching.  It  surely  does  not  appear  in  his 
epistles.  The  information  supphed  in  this  way 
17 


1 8  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

is  confined  to  two  statements  concerning  the  de- 
velopment of  Jesus,  one  of  which  precedes,  while 
the  other  follows,  the  story  of  a  visit  He  made  to 
the  Temple  at  the  age  of  twelve  (Luke  ii.  40-52). 

We  know,  however,  that  He  made  His  home 
with  the  humble  people  who  were  known  as  His 
father  and  mother  (Matt.  xiii.  55)  in  a  httle  coun- 
try village  in  the  province  of  Galilee,  and  there 
grew  up  (Luke  iv.  16).  There  are  few  places 
better  than  such  a  village  for  the  strong  and  true 
development  of  a  Hfe.  Its  interests  are  not  so 
pretentious  and  extensive  as  those  of  city  Hfe,  but 
they  are  deep  and  thoughtful.  In  such  surround- 
ings the  power  of  true  vision  and  honest  action 
is  not  discouraged  as  in  a  city  by  the  conven- 
tional conceptions  which  obscure  the  truth,  and 
the  life  of  personal  irresponsibility  which  leads 
to  the  toleration  of  that  which  is  questionable  or 
wrong.  No  rugged  prophet  was  ever  produced 
by  city  life.  In  the  simple  social  life  of  a  coun- 
try town,  with  its  sympathy,  its  purity,  its  kindH- 
ness,  its  blunt  honesty,  Jesus  grew  up,  an  inte- 
gral part  of  the  community  life  as  no  boy  is  in  a 
city. 

He  was  from  the  beginning,  evidently,  an  ob- 
serv^ant  boy.  He  studied  the  life  of  His  town, 
and  He  took  special  dehght  in  the  unending 
beauty  of  mountain  and  river  and  sea,  and  the 
vast  instruction  of  plants  and  flowers,  of  sky  and 
cloud,  of  bird  and  beast. 

His  home  was  one  of  the  best  class  of  the  sim- 
ple homes  of  the  poor.  It  preserved,  evidently, 
the  primitive  godliness  of  the  nation.  His  pa- 
rents  (Luke  ii.  48)  were  of  the  most  devout  spirit 
(Matt.  i.  19 ;  Luke  i.  46-55),  free  from  the  big- 
otry which  reigned  in  Judea,  and  not  contami- 
nated by  the  laxity  of  Galilee,  whi^  was  to  Juda- 


i 


THE    EARLY    LIFE    OF   JESUS  I9 

ism  "the  court  of  the  Gentiles,"  and  which 
presented  the  temptations  of  foreign  life  as  intro- 
duced by  the  Gentile  traders  on  their  constant 
visits,  and  by  a  large  foreign  community  in  the 
DecapoHs.  It  was  nevertheless  the  province 
"of  generous  spirits,  of  warm,  impulsive  hearts, 
of  intense  nationalism,  of  simple  manners,  and  of 
earnest  piety"  (Edersheim,  The  Life  and  Times 
of  Jesus  the  Messiah^  vol.  i.,  pp.  223,  225). 

Jesus  was  the  eldest  child  in  the  family.  He 
had  four  brothers,  James,  Joseph,  Simon,  and 
Judas  (Matt.  xiii.  55  ;  Mark  vi.  3),  and  at  least 
two  sisters  (Matt.  xiii.  56).  Joseph,  His  mother's 
husband,  seems  to  have  died  before  Jesus  entered 
upon  public  life,  and  He  may  have  been  called 
upon  even  in  His  youth  to  share  with  His  mother 
the  cares  of  the  home  (John  ii.  12).  If  Eders- 
heim's  view  of  the  opinions  of  James  and  Jude 
and  of  the  relationship  of  Simon  Zelotes  to  Jesus 
be  correct,  then  in  His  own  home  circle  Jesus  must 
have  felt  the  influence  of  the  three  purest  Jewish 
tendencies:  the  earnestness  of  the  Shammaites 
represented  in  James,  the  buoyancy  of  the  Mes- 
sianic watchers  represented  in  Jude,  and  the  fer- 
vor of  the  nationalist  idea  represented  in  His 
cousin,  Simon  the  Zealot  (Luke  vi.  15).  Stronger 
than  all  such  influences,  however,  must  have  been 
the  force  of  His  mother's  example  and  teaching. 
Everything  indicates  that  she  was  one  of  those 
rare  women  whose  glory  it  is  to  prepare  a  noble 
life,  losing  themselves  in  it,  and  desiring  to  be 
glorified  only  in  its  usefulness  (Heb.  xi.  40). 

Jesus  did  not  have  what  was  regarded  as  a 
liberal  education,— the  Pharisees  of  Jerusalem 
counted  this  a  reproach  (John  vii.  15), — but  what 
educational  advantages  Nazareth  afforded  were 
doubtless  placed  at  His  disposal.     There  was,  of 


20  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

course,  a  village  school,  to  which  He  was  prob- 
ably sent  after  he  had  reached  the  age  of  six 
(Geikie,  The  Life  of  Christy  p.  173);  but  much  of 
His  training  He  must  have  received  at  home  from 
His  mother.  Early  in  hfe  He  learned  to  read 
and  write.  He  must  have  been  an  eager  scholar, 
for  besides  Aramaic,  which  was  the  vernacular 
of  the  Jews  (Mark  v.  41),  and  Greek,  which  was 
widely  used,  especially  in  Gahlee,  and  which  He 
Himself  used  in  His  teaching,  He  also  mastered 
Hebrew — a  dead  language  in  His  day,  but  the 
vestment  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  of 
which  He  was  a  close  and  earnest  student.  Up 
to  his  tenth  year  it  was  held  that  the  Bible 
should  be  the  exclusive  text-book  of  a  Jewish 
boy ;  from  ten  to  fifteen  the  Mishnah  should  be 
the  chief  text-book ;  and  after  the  age  of  fifteen 
the  higher  theological  discussions  were  open  to 
him.  Jesus'  public  life,  when  He  had  no  oppor- 
tunity whatever  for  study,  showed  a  mastery  of 
all  branches  of  a  Jewish  boy's  education,  which 
was  proof  of  careful  training  in  His  early  days. 

Even  if  His  family  had  not  been  very  poor, 
Jesus  would  probably  have  learned  a  trade.  It 
was  a  good  Jewish  custom.  Jesus  followed  the 
trade  of  Joseph  and  became  a  carpenter  (Mark 
vi.  3).  Justin  Martyr  says  He  made  plows  and 
yokes,  and  we  must  believe,  from  the  character 
of  His  later  work,  that  they  were  very  excellent 
plows  and  yokes  which  were  turned  out  from 
His  shop. 

Wandering  along  the  Sea  of  Galilee  or  over 
the  hills;  watching  the  blue  sky,  the  springing 
flowers,  the  husbandman  and  the  shepherd ;  in 
the  shop  of  Joseph,  in  the  home  of  Mary,  and  in 
the  school  of  Nazareth,  Jesus  spent  His  child- 
hood.   "  And  the  child  grew,  and  waxed  strong, 


) 


THE    EARLY    LIFE    OF   JESUS  21 

filled  with  wisdom ;   and  the  grace  of  God  was 
upon  Him"  (Luke  ii.  40). 

At  the  age  of  twelve  came  an  experience,  the 
story  of  which  is  the  only  direct  information  we 
have  of  all  the  sweet  life  of  these  thirty  years 
(Luke  ii.  41-51).  He  was  taken  to  Jerusalem 
to  attend  the  Passover.  Strictly,  He  did  not  be- 
come a  "  son  of  the  law  "  until  the  age  of  thirteen, 
but  the  legal  age  was  often  anticipated  by  a  year 
or  two.  Upon  becoming  a  "son  of  the  law," 
the  young  Jew  began  regularly  to  observe  the 
ceremonial  law  and  to  attend  the  three  great  fes- 
tivals. It  was  therefore  a  solemn  epoch  in  Jesus* 
life.  Moreover,  this  was  probably  Jesus'  first 
visit  to  Jerusalem  since  He  was  taken  there  as  a 
babe  from  Bethlehem.  For  the  first  time  the 
boy  from  Nazareth  of  Galilee,  with  its  freedom 
and  sweet  air  and  sky,  and  the  liberal,  loving  life 
of  Mary's  home,  was  brought  into  contact  with 
the  formalized  rehgious  hfe  of  His  nation:  the 
Holy  City  of  David,  kept  scrupulously  free  from 
all  ceremonial  uncleanness ;  and  the  mighty,  in- 
violate Temple,  thronged  now  with  the  tens  and 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  pilgrims  who,  from, 
many  lands  and  many  thousands  of  cities,  had 
come  up  to  worship  at  Jerusalem.  It  must  have 
been  a  wonderful  sight  to  Jesus,  and  have  quick- 
ened all  the  pulses  within  Him.  Yet,  though  He, 
was  a  country  boy,  the  strange  sights  had  no  fas- 
cination for  Him— not  even  the  historic  places 
made  famous  by  the  stories  with  which  His 
mother  had  made  His  heart  swell  with  the  pride 
of  His  famous  nation  in  the  twilight  of  the  Sab- 
bath evenings  in  Nazareth.  His  boyish  medita- 
tions had  already  carried  Him  beyond  the  outward 
show,  and  He  spentHis  days  at  the  Temple  listen- 
ing to  the  doctors.    So  interested  was  He  in  what 


22  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

He  heard  that  He  remained  behind  when  the  rest 

of  the  party  left  Jerusalem  on  their  way  home. 
When  they  sought  Him,  He  was  found  in  the 
midst  of  a  group  in  the  Temple,  earnestly  asking 
questions  of  the  learned  men,  who  at  the  Pass- 
over came  out  of  the  Sanhedrin  and  taught  the 
people  colloquially,  and  as  earnestly  explaining 
to  them  His  own  boyish  opinions,  to  their  amaze- 
ment and  dehght ;  for  there  was  about  Him  noth- 
ing forward  or  impertinent,  but  only  the  intense 
eagerness  of  a  child  to  whom  God  had  given 
serious  vision,  and  from  whom  a  wise  mother  had 
withheld  folly. 

When  they  sought  Jesus,  Joseph  and  Mary 
were  surprised  to  find  Him  so  engaged.  They 
had  taken  it  for  granted  that  He  was  among  the 
other  children  of  their  caravan.  He  had  evi- 
dently kept  to  Himself,  in  the  years  at  Nazareth, 
the  grave  thoughts  and  questions  which  the  fas- 
cination of  the  Temple,  and  the  wise  and  not  un- 
kindly doctors,  had  encouraged  Him  to  express. 
When  His  mother,  with  some  reproof,  asked 
Him  for  an  explanation  of  His  conduct.  He  re- 
phed  that  He  did  not  think  it  was  necessary  to 
make  a  search  for  Him ;  that  He  might  have 
been  expected  to  be  in  His  Father's  house,  about 
His  Father's  business.  It  was  a  strange  reply, 
one  which  His  parents  did  not  understand.  But 
He  went  at  once  with  them  back  to  Nazareth, 
where  He  was  subject  to  them,  though  His 
mother  kept  in  mind  and  heart  His  strange  con- 
duct and  words  at  Jerusalem,  and  wondered  at 
His  unlikeness  to  other  boys  who  had  gone  up 
with  them,  and  who  had  spent  their  time  in  see- 
ing the  wonderful  sights  of  the  great  city. 

In  Nazareth  He  seems  to  have  resumed  again 
the  old  life,  though  year  by  year  He  must  have 


) 


THE    EARLY    LIFE    OF    JESUS  23 

shown  the  growth  which  ended  in  His  appear- 
ance as  the  One  whom  the  Baptist  heralded. 
His  rehgious  Hfe  was  deepening,  broadening, 
strengthening,  gathering  volume  and  fullness,  ris- 
ing up  into  the  infinite  comprehension  of  His  first 
©ublic  utterances.  He  evidently  spent  much 
time  in  the  little  synagogue  of  Nazareth,  whose 
■^'abbi  knew  Him,  and  where  He  probably  had 
access  to  rolls  of  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
which  neither  Joseph  nor  He  had  money  to  buy 
for  use  in  their  own  home.  He  was  one  of  the 
readers  or  expositors  at  the  Monday,  Thursday, 
and  Sabbath  services  in  the  synagogue,  and  when 
He  came  back  to  Nazareth,  at  the  beginning 
of  His  public  life,  was  at  once  invited  to  read 
and  explain  some  passage  of  Scripture  (Luke 
iv.  16). 

His  growth  after  His  first  visit  to  Jerusalem 
was  as  quiet  and  symmetrical  as  before.  He  "  ad- 
vanced in  wisdom  and  stature,  and  in  favor  with 
God  and  man"  (Luke  ii.  52). 

This  is  a  most  attractive  picture  of  a  young 
life.  It  is  represented  as  perfectly  normal  and 
quiet.  The  silly  apocryphal  accounts  of  Jesus' 
childhood  given  in  the  Arabic  Gospel  of  the  In- 
fancy {The  Afite-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  viii.,  pp. 
405  ff.)  are  wholly  foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the  au- 
thentic story.  Yet  the  temptation  to  introduce 
overstatements  and  exaggerations  is  irresistible  to 
all  who  write  an  account  of  such  a  childhood, 
except  those  who,  as  personal  witnesses,  are  tell- 
ing a  story  of  fact.  Even  Josephus  introduces 
such  elements  into  his  account  of  the  child- 
hood of  Moses  (Works,  book  ii.,  chap,  ix.,  §§  6, 
7).  But  Jesus,  beginning  hfe,  as  the  gospels  rep- 
resent, as  2l  perfect  child,  yet  began  it  as  a  perfect 
child: 


V 


24  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

*'  He  comes,  but  not  in  regal  splendor  drest— 
The  haughty  diadem,  the  Tyrian  vest ; 
Not  armed  in  flame,  all  glorious  from  afar, 
Of  hosts  the  Captain,  and  the  Lord  of  war  "— > 

but  as  a  simple  Galilean  child. 

That  the  influences  which  surrounded  Jesus* 
childhood,  and  His  early  training  in  the  freedom 
of  open  air  and  the  liberty  of  a  loving  home, 
will  explain  some  of  the  features  of  His  Hfe  and 
conduct,  will  be  plain ;  but  whether  they  in  any 
way  account  for  Him  will  be  more  manifest  after 
a  study  of  His  plans  and  methods  of  work,  the 
traits  of  His  character,  His  bearing  and  the  bear- 
ing of  others  toward  Him  in  the  relations  of  life, 
His  extraordinary  personality,  His  conduct  in 
the  persecution  which  ended  in  His  unjust  death, 
and  His  posthumous  influence. 


) 


HIS    PLANS  AND  METHODS    OF  WORK 


«5 


i 

J 


II 

HIS   PLANS   AND   METHODS   OF   WORK 

Formal  organization  He  magnificently  neg- 
lected. "Are  you  a  society?"  was  asked  of 
George  Macdonald's  Robert  Falconer  when  he 
worked  among  the  poor  in  London.  "  No  ;  why 
should  we  be  anything?  We  are  an  undefined 
company  of  people  who  have  grown  into  human 
relations  with  each  other  naturally  through  one 
attractive  force — love  for  human  beings.  When 
we  die,  there  will  be  no  corporate  body  left  be- 
hind to  simulate  life."  Christ  erected  no  ma- 
chine. He  dealt  with  persons,  life.  As  Young 
points  out :  "  He  originated  no  series  of  well- 
concerted  plans ;  He  neither  contrived  nor  put 
in  motion  any  extended  machinery ;  He  entered 
into  no  correspondence  with  parties  in  His  own 
country  and  in  other  regions  of  the  world,  in 
order  to  spread  His  influence  and  obtain  cooper- 
ation. Even  the  few  who  were  His  constant 
companions,  and  were  warmly  attached  to  His 
person,  were  not,  in  His  Hfetime,  imbued  with 
His  sentiments,  and  were  not  prepared  to  take 
up  His  work  in  His  spirit  after  He  was  gone. 
He  constituted  no  society,  with  its  name,  design, 
and  laws  all  definitely  fixed  and  formally  estab- 
lished. He  had  no  time  to  construct  and  to  or- 
ganize—His life  was  too  short— and  almost  all 
27 


( 


28  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

He  did  was  to  speak.  He  spoke  in  familiar 
conversation  with  His  friends,  or  at  the  wayside 
to  passers-by,  or  to  those  who  chose  to  consult 
him,  or  to  large  assemblies,  as  opportunity  offered. 
He  left  behind  Him  a  few  spoken  truths— not  a 
line  or  word  of  writing — and  a  certain  spirit  in- 
carnated in  His  principles  and  breathed  out  from 
His  life ;  and  then  He  died." 

Yet  He  worked  with  an  aim.  He  had  a  work 
"  given  "  Him  by  the  Father  (John  v.  36 ;  xvii. 
4),  and  He  wrought  at  this  work  with  a  -plan, 
and  in  accordance  with  clear  principles.  What 
were  His  plans?  In  what  methods  did  His  prin- 
ciples express  themselves? 

I.  He  undertakes  to  establish  on  earth  the  king- 
dom of  God,  or  to  make  men  conscious  of  ns 
existence  and  character. 

This  was  His  message  (Mark  i.  14;  Luke  ix. 
11).  He  was  understood  to  be  the  spokesman  of 
the  kingdom  (Luke  y.v\\.  20).  "  Consider  the 
reach  of  this  undertaking,  which,  if  He  was  only 
a  man,  shows  Him  to  have  been  the  most  extrav- 
agant, even  the  wildest,  of  all  human  enthusiasts. 
Contrary  to  every  religious  prejudice  of  His  time 
and  nation,  to  all  His  training,  education,  and 
surroundings.  He  starts  what  He  calls  the  king- 
dom of  God,  His  purpose  including  a  new  moral 
creation  of  the  race — not  Jews  alone,  but  the 
whole  human  race.  Upon  this  single  fact  Rein- 
hard  erects  an  argument  for  His  extrahuman 
character "  (Bushnell,  The  Character  of  Jesus^ 
PP-  34)  36).  A  view  of  some  of  the  surface  char- 
acteristics of  this  kingdom  makes  His  design 
appear  yet  more  remarkable. 

I.  It  is  the  establishment  of  a  new  and  spiritual 
relationship  centered  in  Himself,  a  brotherhood 


J 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         29 

of  lovers,  each  loving  as  He  had  loved  (John 
xiii.  34,  35).  Mere  acceptance  of  the  truth  of 
His  message  could  not  constitute  men  His  disci- 
ples. If  it  could,  the  kingdom  of  Christ  would 
be  full  of  devils  who  believe  and  tremble.  Per- 
sonal love  and  devotion,  the  acceptance  of  Christ 
as  Lord  and  Sovereign,  make  men  His.  His 
disciples  say,  "To  us  to  hve  is  Christ"  (Phil.  i. 
21);  "  We  are  ambitious  to  be  well-pleasing 
unto  Him"  (2  Cor.  v.  9).  In  this  Christianity- 
differs  from  all  other  rehgions,  which  are  rooted 
in  methods,  books,  or  doctrines.  It  rests  on  a 
person.  Mohammed  holds  in  Islam  the  place  of 
Moses  in  Judaism,  not  of  Christ  in  Christianity. 
His  religion  is  the  rehgion  of  a  book.  Buddha 
professed  no  more  than  to  have  discovered  a  way 
in  no  wise  related  to  himself.  His  religion  is  the 
rehgion  of  a  method  {Gore,  T/i^  Incarnation  of  the 
Sxon  of  God,  pp.  7-10).  But  no  reverence  for  a 
book  or  pursuit  of  a  method  which  does  not  end 
i)i  a  person  can  make  men  Christians.  Detach 
C!hrist  from  His  system,  and  it  is  no  longer  His 
S)AStem.  His  doctrine  was  a  self-assertion.  His 
books  are  a  biography.  His  method  is  a  per- 
sc»nal  friendship.  "  I  am  the  way,  and  the  truth, 
and  the  life,"  was  one  of  His  master  words,  re- 
peated in  various  forms,  all  asserting  His  central 
and  commanding  position  (John  xiv.  6  ;  xii.  26, 
3Jf ;  xi.  25).  He  was  His  religion.  Whosoever 
entered  it  entered  Him ;  whosoever  refused  Him 
refused  Hfe  and  citizenship  in  the  kingdom  (John 
v.  40).  In  an  appalling  metaphor  He  declared, 
**  Verily,  verily,  I  say  unto  you.  Except  ye  eat 
tlie  flesh  of  the  Son  of  man  and  drink  His  blood, 
ye  have  not  life  in  yourselves.  He  that  eateth 
My  flesh  and  drinketh  My  blood  hath  eternal 
life;  and  I  will  raise  him  up  at  the  last  day. 


30  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

For  My  flesh  is  meat  indeed,  and  My  blood  is 
drink  indeed.  He  that  eateth  My  flesh  and 
drinketh  My  blood  abideth  in  Me,  and  I  in  him. 
As  the  living  Father  sent  Me,  and  I  live  because 
of  the  Father ;  so  he  that  eateth  Me,  he  also  shall 
live  because  of  Me"  (John  vi.  53-57). 

2.  This  new  relationship  takes  precedence  of 
all  human  ties,  even  the  closest  (Luke  ix.  57-62  ; 
xi.  27,  28).  His  statements  are  unhumanly  un- 
compromising in  this.  A  human  teacher  would 
have  left  loopholes  for  human  weakness  (Luke 
xiv.  25-27).  He  Himself  met  this  test.  The 
Master   is   not  above   His  servants   (Mark  iii. 

31-35)-  . 

Now  in  declaring  such  a  doctrine,  a  commu- 
nism of  love  supreme  over  all  bonds,  a  human 
teacher  would  have  destroyed  the  family  and 
other  divinely  sanctioned  human  ties.  Plato 
has  done  so  in  his  Republic^  §  457  ^  "The  law,  I 
said,  which  is  the  sequel  of  this,  and  of  all  that 
has  preceded  it,  is  to  this  effect:  .  ,  .  that  the 
wives  of  these  guardians  are  to  be  common,  and 
their  children  also  common,  and  no  parent  is  to 
know  his  own  child,  nor  any  child  his  parent." 
Not  so  Jesus.  His  first  miracle  was  wrought  at 
a  wedding.  His  last  words  from  the  cross  to 
John  made  a  home  for  His  mother. 

3.  It  includes  all  sexes,  ages,  classes. 

His  apostles  were  men.  Women  loved  and 
ministered  to  Him  (Luke  viii.  1-3).  Simeon 
and  the  widow  of  fourscore  and  four  years,  Anna, 
first  took  Him  in  their  arms  and  recognized  Him 
(Luke  ii.).  His  followers  were  young  men,  and 
He  loved  children  (Mark  'x..i^).  He  did  not  ap- 
peal, however,  to  the  party  feeling  of  age  or  sex. 
If  He  called  rich  men  (Luke  xix.  2),  He  told  a 
Pharisee  who  entertained  Him  to  call  the  poor 

\ 


) 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         3 1 

when  he  made  a  feast  (Luke  xiv.  13).  "Blessed  are 
ye  poor,"  were  the  words  of  One  among  whose 
disciples  were  shortly  Barnabas,  Joseph  of  Ari- 
mathea,  Mark's  mother,  and  Mnason,  owners  of 
property.  Old  systems  regarded  the  deformed 
as  under  a  curse  (John  ix.  2).  His  invitation  in- 
cluded the  maimed,  the  lame,  and  the  Wind  (Luke 
xiv.  13).  Of  the  self-righteous  alone  He  spoke 
with  bitterness  (Matt.  xxi.  31  ;  v.  20).  His  teach- 
ing "  was  no  private  doctrine,  designed  for  a  nar- 
row circle  of  the  initiated  ;  nor  was  it  a  scholastic 
or  scientific  doctrine,  designed  for  the  scholarly 
and  the  cultured.  It  was  a  message  of  univer- 
sally intelligible  import,  designed  for  all  classes 
of  people,  rich  and  poor,  young  and  old,  if  they 
would  but  hearken  and  receive  it "  (Wendt, 
TTie  Teaching  of  Jesus ^  vol.  i.,  p.  151). 

So  wide  were  His  sympathies  that  Pharisaic 
pride  complained  (John  vii.  48,  49  ;  Mark  ii.  16, 
17).  To  this  universal  adaptiveness  He  appealed 
as  an  evidence  of  the  prophecy-fulfilHng  charac- 
ter of  His  coming  (Luke  vii.  22). 

"  Was  He  exclusive  ?  Did  ever  man  or  woman 
come  near  Him  and  He  turn  away?  Did  He 
not  go  among  all  ranks  and  into  every  society? 
Did  He  not  go  to  the  houses  of  great  men  and 
rulers,  of  Pharisees,  of  poor  men,  of  publicans? 
Did  He  not  frequent  the  Temple,  the  market- 
place, the  synagogue,  the  sea-shore,  the  haunts 
of  outcasts  and  harlots?  Was  He  not  found  at 
feasts  and  at  funerals?  Wherever  men  and 
women  were  to  be  found,  there  was  His  place, 
and  there  is  ours"  (Hughes,  Religio  Laid,  pp. 
34,  35  ;  John  vi.  37). 

4.  His  fondness  for  children  suggests  the  pe- 
cuhar  test  of  character  He  chose  (Matt,  xviii.  i- 
6).     Presumably,  for  such  an  enterprise,  an  un- 


( 


32  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

dertaking  so  gigantic,  He  would  need  the  most 
virile  spirit.  He  demands  instead  that  His  dis- 
ciples become  like  Httle  children. 

5.  He  held  out  no  meretricious  inducements  to 
enter  this  kingdom  (Matt.  v.  11,12;  x.  22  ;  John 
XV.  19-21).  Those  who  accepted  His  offers 
should  have  joy  (John  xv.  11);  but  it  would 
consist,  not  in  new  external  surroundings,  nor  in 
a  share  in  a  communistic  division  of  other  men's 
earnings,  but  in  the  opportunity  to  serve  other  1;, 
and  in  a  new  state  of  heart.  To  a  disappointed 
hint  of  Peter's,  "  Lo,  we  have  left  all,  and  have 
followed  Thee,"  Jesus  did  reply,  "There  is  no 
man  that  hath  left  house,  or  brethren,  or  sisters, 
or  mother,  or  father,  or  children,  or  lands,  for 
My  sake,  and  for  the  gospel's  sake,  but  he  shj/U 
receive  a  hundredfold  now  in  this  time,  houses, 
and  brethren,  and  sisters,  and  mothers,  and  chil- 
dren, and  lands,"  but  He  added  significantly, 
**  with  perseadions''  (Mark  x.  28-30). 

11.  His  plans  were  immense  and  revolutionary. 

Freedom  through  the  truth  was  His  offer 
(John  viii.  31,  32).  The  truth  and  the  freedom 
both  centered  in  Himself  (John  xiv.  6 ;  viii.  2)^). 
He  proposed  to  give  men  eternal  and  abundant 
life  (John  x.  10,  28).  He  proposed  to  be  tbis 
life  (John  vi.  51,  53—57).  He  would  displace 
darkness  with  light  (John  viii.  12).  He  would 
be  this  hght  (John  ix.  5).  He  came  to  save  the 
world  (John  xii.  47)  by  drawing  it  to  Himself 
(John  xii.  32).  Human  governments  and  gov- 
ernors were  as  playthings  in  His  way  (Matt.  xvii. 
24-27  ;  Luke  xiii.  32).  He  openly  declared  that 
His  plans  were  not  human  (John  xviii.  36  ;  vi.  38). 

And  His  plans  were  revolutionary.    The  Jews 


y 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         33. 

asserted  that  if  Pilate  should  let  Him  go  he  would 
show  lack  of  friendship  for  Csesar,  whose  empire 
was  imperiled.  The  charge  was  malicious  but  true  ; 
for  He  certainly  taught  doctrines  which  involved 
the  renovation  of  the  world  and  the  readjustment 
of  social  relations.  His  teaching  has  not  yet 
borne  its  full  fruit.  The  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
is  still  a  prophecy,  but  no  later  prophecy  has  cor- 
rected or  displaced  it.  Christ's  "  thought,  after 
two  thousand  years,  needs  no  revision.  His 
conceptions  of  God,  of  man  and  human  society, 
are  ultimate  conceptions ;  intellectual  power  can- 
.not  go  beyond  them,  can  never  even  master  their 
entire  content.  His  spirit  has  upon  it  the  mark 
of  finality,  His  character  is  the  full  impression 
upon  humanity  of  the  moral  perfection  of  the- 
Deity.  The  ultimateness  of  Christ's  thought  and 
the  finahty  of  His  spirit  differentiate  His  tran- 
scendence from  that  of  the  greatest  and  best  of 
mankind,  and  ground  His  being  in  the  Godhead 
in  a  way  sohtary  and  supreme"  (Gordon,  The 
Christ  of  To-day^  p.  128). 

III.  His  project  covered  ages  of  time. 

He  counted  upon  a  temporary  eclipse  as  the 
condition  of  an  eternal  shining  (John  xii.  24). 
He  declared  that  His  story  would  be  told  in 
strange  lands  and  tongues,  and  provided  in  His" 
plan  for  the  years  required  for  this  (Matt.  xxiv. 
14;  Mark  xiv.  9).  In  bold  assertion  He  faces- 
the  antagonism  of  the  centuries  (Matt.  xvi.  18). 
He  looks  over  the  ages  to  the  days  of  His  tri- 
umph at  the  end  (Matt,  xxiv.,  xxv.).  He  doubted 
not  that 

"  Thro'  the  ages  one  increasing  purpose  runs," 


34  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

and  this  purpose  was  His  own  (Matt,  xxviii. 
18-20). 

Alexander  and  Napoleon  have  planned  world- 
wide empires,  but  their  plans  necessitated  their 
continued  hfe.  Jesus  anticipated  the  growing 
power  of  His  kingdom  centuries  after  His  death. 
"It  is  not  human,  we  may  safely  affirm,  to  lay 
out  projects  transcending  all  human  ability,  Hke 
this  of  Jesus,  and  which  cannot  be  completed  in 
many  thousands  of  years,  doing  it  in  all  the  airs 
of  sobriety,  entering  on  the  performance  without 
parade,  and  yielding  life  itself  to  it  as  the  inau- 
gural of  its  triumph.  No  human  creature  sits 
quietly  down  to  a  perpetual  project — one  thatpro- 
poses  to  be  executed  only  at  the  end  or  final  har- 
vest of  the  world.  That  is  not  human,  but  divine '  * 
(Bushnell,  The  Character  of  Jesus  ^  pp.  38,  39). 

Thinking  much  at  His  work  in  Nazareth  of 
Abraham  and  Moses,  and  their  great  and  per- 
manent influence,  Jesus  may  have  ventured  in 
His  dreams  to  hope  to  accomplish  as  much ;  but 
would  any  devout  young  Jew  dare  to  declare  such 
dreams,  and  yet  vaster  dreams,  in  full  day  unless 
he  were  more  than  a  devout  young  Jew? 

IV.    The  originality  of  His  plan. 

Think  first  how  rare  is  true  originahty.  **I 
am  a  part  of  all  that  I  have  met,"  declares 
Ulysses.  And  Goethe  says,  "  Much  is  talked 
about  originahty ;  but  what  does  originahty 
mean?  We  are  no  sooner  bom  than  the  world 
around  begins  to  act  on  us ;  its  action  lasts  to 
the  end  of  our  lives,  and  enters  into  everything. 
All  that  we  truly  call  our  own  is  our  energy,  our 
vigor,  our  will.  If  I  coi/M  ^numerate  all  that  I 
really  owe  to  the  great  men  who  have  preceded 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         35 

me,  and  to  those  of  my  own  day,  it  would  seem 
that  very  Httle  is  really  my  own." 

Yet  Jesus'  scheme  of  a  kingdom  of  souls  is  un- 
deniably original.  Other  elements  of  His  teach- 
ing are  scarcely  less  so.  "  1  cannot  discover  in 
these  essential  characteristics  of  the  Christian 
religion  any  filiation,  any  human  origin,"  says 
Guizot.  And  Lecky  declares :  "  Nothing  can, 
as  I  conceive,  be  more  erroneous  or  superficial 
than  the  reasonings  of  those  who  maintain  that 
the  moral  element  in  Christianity  has  in  it  noth- 
ing distinctive  or  pecuhar.  It  is  quite  certain 
that  the  Christian  type  differs  not  only  in  degree, 
but  in  kind,  from  the  pagan  one." 

From  whom  could  Jesus  have  learned  His 
doctrine  or  borrowed  His  project?  Not  from 
foreigners.  His  isolation  as  a  young  man  is  a 
pledge  of  this.  Not  from  Jews.  His  contem- 
poraries regarded  His  teaching  as  origmal. 
Schleiermacher  points  out  that  **  of  all  the  sects 
in  vogue,  none  ever  claimed  Jesus  as  represent- 
ing it ;  none  branded  Him  with  the  reproach  of 
apostasy  from  its  tenets."  Moreover,  there  was 
no  one  from  whom  Jesus  could  have  plagiarized 
His  project.  "  The  idea  of  changing  the  moral 
aspect  of  the  w^hole  earth,  of  recovering  nations 
to  the  piu-e  and  inward  worship  of  the  one  God, 
and  to  a  spirit  of  divine  and  fraternal  love,  was 
one  of  which  we  find  not  a  trace  in  philosopher 
and  legislator  before  Him  "  (Channing).  Hebrew 
prophets  had  looked  forward,  with  a  more  or  less 
definite  faith,  to  a  golden  age  to  come.  Jesus 
defined  the  character  of  this  age,  and  asserted  it 
to  be  His  puipose  soon  or  late  to  produce  it. 
There  is  reason,  therefore,  for  Reinha^'d's  argu- 
ment, in  which  he  formally  reviews  all  the  great 
lawgivers,  kings,  statesmen,  heroes,  philosophers, 


36  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

founders  of  states,  and  defenders  of  nations,  all 
the  teachers  of  morals  and  the  prophet  founders 
of  rehgions,  and  "  discovers  as  a  fact  that  no  such 
thought  as  this,  or  nearly  proximate  to  this,  had 
ever  before  been  taken  up  by  any  character  in 
history;  showing  also  how  it  has  happened  to 
every  other  great  character,  however  liberalized 
by  culture,  to  be  limited  in  some  way  to  the  in- 
terest of  his  own  people  or  empire,  and  set  in 
opposition  or  antagonism,  more  or  less  decided- 
ly, to  the  rest  of  the  world.  But  to  Jesus  alone, 
the  simple  GaUlean  carpenter,  it  happens  other- 
wise ;  that  never  having  seen  a  map  of  the  world 
in  His  whole  life,  or  heard  the  names  of  half  the 
nations  on  it.  He  undertakes,  coming  out  of  His 
shop,  a  scheme  as  much  vaster  and  more  diffi- 
cult than  that  of  Alexander  as  it  proposes  more ; 
and  what  is  more  divinely  benevolent!  This 
thought  of  a  universal  kingdom  cemented  in 
God —  .  .  .  the  rustic  tradesman  of  Galilee  pro- 
pounds even  this  for  His  errand,  and  that  in  a 
way  of  assurance  as  simple  and  quiet  as  if  the 
immense  reach  of  His  plan  were,  in  fact,  a 
matter  to  Him  of  no  consideration"  (Bushnell, 
The  Character  of  Jes2is^  pp.  35,  36). 

The  originahty  of  His  conception  is  the  more 
remarkable  when,  laying  aside  for  the  moment 
our  knowledge  of  Jesus  as  divine,  we  think  of  it 
as  put  forward  not  merely  by  a  mechanic,  but 
by  a  Jew.  He  belonged  to  the  most  centripetal 
of  races.  Yet  compare  Him  with  the  flower  of 
the  race  of  opposite  tendency,  the  race  from 
which  His  project  might  have  been  expected  to 
come.  "  Not  one  among  the  ancients  rises  above 
the  limits  of  his  own  nationality  to  such  a  degree 
as  Socrates;  he  himself  wished  to  be  regarded, 
not  as  a  Grecian  merely,  but  as  a  cosmopoHtan, 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         37 

And  yet  even  Socrates  was  essentially  Greek ;  his 
whole  character,  his  moral  nature  not  excepted, 
had  unmistakably  a  Greek  impress,  and  stood  in 
immediate  relation  to  the  manners  and  customs 
of  his  country.  And  this  holds  true  also  of  the 
piety  of  Socrates,  which,  notwithstanding  its  pe- 
cuhar  nature,  had  still  for  its  basis  the  national 
traditions,  and  in  no  sense  possessed  the  univer- 
sal character  of  Christianity  "  (Ullmann,77/!<?  Sin- 
lessness  of  Jesus,  p.  68). 

V.    The  audacity  of  His  plan. 

1.  His  countrymen  knew  Him  only  as  an  un- 
educated villager  (John  vii.  15),  yet  He  proposed 
to  readjust  the  relations  between  men  and  God. 
His  design  was  stupendous.  "  Regard  the  be- 
nevolence of  it,  the  universality  of  it,  the  reli- 
gious grandeur  of  it,  as  a  work  readjusting  the 
relations  of  God  and  His  government  with  men, 
the  cost,  the  length  of  time  it  will  cover,  and 
the  far-off  date  of  its  completion.  It  is  in  this 
scale  that  a  Nazarene  carpenter,  a  poor,  unedu- 
cated villager,  lays  out  His  plans  and  graduates 
the  confidence  of  His  undertakings"  (BushnSll, 
The  Character  of  Jesjis,  p.  38).  An  obscure  peas- 
ant proposes  to  illumine  a  darkened  world. 

2.  He  launched  His  whole  plan  at  the  outset, 
with  no  fear,  no  tentative  statement  to  test  the 
temper  of  the  popular  mind.  "  Now  Jesus  Christ 
our  Lord  was  in  the  true  and  very  highest  sense 
of  the  term  a  social  reformer ;  yet  He  freely  pro- 
claimed the  whole  of  His  social  plan  before  He 
began  to  realize  it.  Had  He  been  merely  a 
*  great  man  '  He  would  have  been  more  prudent ; 
He  would  have  conditioned  His  design;  He 
would  have  tested  it ;  He  would  have  developed 


38  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

it  gradually ;  He  would  have  made  trial  of  its 
working  power;  and  then  He  would  have  re- 
fashioned or  contracted  or  expanded  it  before 
finally  proposing  it  to  the  consideration  of  the 
world.  .  .  .  There  is  no  proof,  no  distant  inti- 
mation of  a  change  or  of  a  modification  of  His 
plan  "  (Liddon,  The  Divinity  of  Our  Lord,  pp.  116, 
1 1 7).  He  did,  of  course,  develop  its  adaptation. 
Maurice  points  out  the  growing  circles  of  His 
influence,  as  described  in  the  Gospel  of  Luke: 
household,  family,  Nazareth,  Gahlee,  the  whole 
nation,  the  world.  The  essential  features  of  His 
plan,  however,  were  proclaimed  from  the  first, 
and  underwent  no  change. 

3.  His  boldness  went  almost  to  the  limit  of 
madness  in  His  choice  of  assistants  and  execu- 
tors. The  trained  and  influential  men  of  His 
nation  He  wholly  overlooked  (John  vii.  48).  He 
was  devoutly  glad  not  to  be  hampered  with  them 
(Matt.  xi.  25).  Of  His  twelve  most  intimate  as- 
sociates, only  one  was  a  Judean,  and  he  proved 
worse  than  a  failure.  The  eleven  others  were 
from  the  province  from  which  no  prophet  was  to 
be  expected  (John  vii,  52),  unschooled,  toil-bur- 
dened, heavy-spirited  men.  When  He  left  them, 
they  seemed  wholly  unfit,  even  after  long  train- 
ing, to  be  trusted  with  any  enterprise  other  than 
a  fishing  expedition,  above  all  a  spiritual  enter- 
prise. But  He  had  chosen  them,  and  He  be- 
queathed His  movement  to  them,  and  these  were 
some  of  the  instructions  He  gave  them :  "  I  will 
give  unto  thee  the  keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven : 
and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be 
bound  in  heaven :  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose 
on  earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven  "  (Matt.  xvi. 
19).  After  His  resurrection  He  renewed  these 
instructions :  "  Whosesoever  sins  ye  forgive,  they 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         39 

are  forgiven  unto  them ;  whosesoever  sins  ye  re- 
tain, they  are  retained"  (John  xx.  23).  Could 
presumption  go  further  if  Jesus  was  only  man? 
Could  a  Peter  forgive  the  sins  of  a  Seneca? 

4.  The  scope  of  His  scheme  was  universal. 
"  He  speaks  as  a  being  related  to  the  whole 
human  race ;  a  narrower  sphere  than  the  world 
never  enters  His  thoughts,"  says  Channing.  He 
had  come,  He  declared,  "not  to  judge,  but  to 
save  the  world  "  (John  iii.  17  ;  xii.  47) ;  "  to  seek 
and  to  save  that  which  was  lost "  (Luke  xix.  10). 
"  I  am  the  hving  bread  which  came  down  out 
of  heaven,"  He  openly  told  the  Jews:  "if  any 
man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  forever :  yea 
and  the  bread  which  I  will  give  is  My  flesh, 
for  the  hfe  of  the  world"  (John  vi.  51).  It 
was  a  world's  darkness  that  He  pitied  and  in- 
tended to  banish  :  "  I  am  the  hght  of  the  world : 
he  that  followeth  Me  shall  not  walk  in  the  dark- 
ness, but  shall  have  the  hght  of  hfe  "  (John  viii. 
12).  He  declared  on  another  occasion  that  He 
had  sheep  who  did  not  belong  to  the  Jewish  fold, 
whom  He  proposed  to  combine  with  those  sheep 
in  the  fold  of  Israel  who  could  hear  His  voice 
in  one  great  flock,  which  would  be  under  His 
leadership  (John  x.  16).  His  last  instructions  to 
His  disciples,  in  which  He  charged  them  to  ignore 
all  geographical  lines  and  keep  in  mind  the  uni- 
versal bearings  of  His  scheme,  added  nothing  to 
the  clearness  with  which  He  had  already  set  forth 
His  purpose  and  His  wishes  (Mark  xvi.  15  ;  Acts 
i.  8).  Mr.  Curzon's  sneer  at  the  missionary 
enterprise,  in  Problems  of  the  Far  East,  on  the 
ground  that  it  rests  insecurely  on  a  detached 
statement  of  Christ's,  is  wholly  superficial.  The 
essential  feature  of  His  project  was  its  universal- 
ity.   Take  this  feature  away,  and  its  whole  ^har- 


40  THE    MAN    CHRIST    JESUS 

acter  is  altered.  Christ  Himself  would  disown  it. 
An  ethnic  mission  He  would  have  scorned  as  He 
scorned  the  national  narrowness  of  the  Jews  (John 
iv.  9 ;  viii.  48,  49).  The  Son  of  God  lived  and 
died  for  a  world,  as  it  was  a  world's  conviction 
and  a  world's  faith  for  which  He  wrought  and 
prayed  (John  xvi.  8;  xvii.  21,  23). 


VI.  He  bega?i  with,  a7id  worked  from,  the  poor. 
He  was  always  respected  by  them,  but  7ievef 
became  a  popular  demagogue. 

Like  the  miner's  son  brought  forth  amid  the 
bustle  of  a  market-day  at  Eisleben,  He  was  born 
among  the  poor  (Luke  ii.  7),  and  grew  up  as  a 
tradesman  and  a  tradesman's  son  (Mark  vi.  3  ; 
Matt.  xiii.  55).  He  took  delight  in  the  company 
of  the  poor,  even  the  evil  poor.  Though  holy 
and  pure,  the  Son  of  the  wealthy  God,  He  sought 
the  company  of  the  wretched,  the  unholy,  the 
impure  (Mark  ii.  15).  This  intimacy  was  cited 
as  a  reproach  against  Him  (Luke  v.  30-32  ;  vii. 
34).  The  people  reciprocated  His  liking  (Luke 
XV.  1,2).  Human  leaders  cajole  the  people,  as- 
sociating with  them  professionally,  but  finding 
life's  interests  elsewhere ;  or,  if  themselves  sprung 
of  the  people,  often  and  soon  develop  tastes 
which  remove  them  from  their  class,  and  thence- 
forth only  "  work  "  the  people  as  their  tool.  Jesus, 
however,  was  one  of  them,  and  stayed  among 
them,  choosing  from  them  His  intimate  associ- 
ates. 

In  His  public  work  He  drew  them  irresistibly 
(Matt.  iv.  25;  xix.  2;  Luke  xi.  29,  Greek;  iv. 
42;  V.  I,  15;  vi.  17,  18;  viii.  40;  xi.  37;  xiv. 
25).     He  had  a  message  which  they  wished  to 


HIS   PLANS   AND    METHODS    OF    WORK        4I 

hear  (Luke  xix.  47,  48;  xxi.  ^S)j  and  to  which, 
though  with  heavy  and  blind  response  (John  vii. 
31,  49),  and  with  fitful  but  vigorous  loyalty  (Matt, 
xxi.  45,  46),  they  answered.  This  response  of 
the  people  He  might  have  utilized  if  He  had 
wished  to  crush  the  usurpers  who  sat  in  Moses' 
seat  (John  vi.  14,  15  ;  xii.  12-19).  Unlike  other 
reformers,  who  have  used  for  personal  gain  and 
advancement  the  forces  they  have  aroused,  Jesus 
ignored  or  discouraged  them. 

He  stood  boldly  for  the  poor  and  their  cause 
(Luke  vi.  20).  He  reviled  with  withering  bitter- 
ness those  who  locked  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
against  them  (Matt,  xxiii.  13).  He  cared  for 
them  lovingly  (Mark  viii.  3),  but  He  exposed 
their  own  sin  and  evil  and  selfishness  (Matt.  xv. 
8,  9,  10  ;  John  vi.  26),  and  never  allowed  them  to 
become  a  sect  or  a  party.  Jesus  worked  for 
these  people,  was  regarded  in  a  friendly  way  by 
them,  perhaps  at  times  because  He  attacked 
those  whom  they  were  not  displeased  to  see  as- 
sailed ;  but  He  cannot  be  said  ever  to  have  been 
popular  with  them.  His  unity  with  the  people 
and  His  separation  from  them  were  equally  won- 
derful. They  did  not  understand  Him.  They 
did  feel,  however,  in  some  true  sense,  that  He 
was  something  to  them  (John  xii.  9-19);  and 
though  one  hour  they  joined  in  the  shout,  "  Cru- 
cify Him!"  the  next  they  smote  their  breasts  at 
the  sight  of  their  crime  (Luke  xxiii.  48). 

No  other  human  reformer  has  taken  such  an 
attitude  toward  the  people.  Plato  deemed  it 
right  to  despise  men  whose  employment  did  not 
permit  them  to  devote  themselves  to  their  friends 
and  to  the  state.  According  to  Aristotle,  all 
forms  of  labor  which  require  physical  strength 
are  degrading  to  a  freeman.     Cicero  declared, 


42  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

"The  mechanic's  occupation  is  degrading.  A 
workshop  is  incompatible  with  anything  noble." 
Christ  came  as  a  mechanic,  and  identified  Him- 
self with  the  plain  people.  Other  social  reform- 
ers have  begun  at  the  apex  of  the  pyramid. 
Christ  began  at  the  base.  Others  had  despised 
the  poor ;  they  were  the  appendages  and  drudges 
of  society.  No  one  had  thought  of  beginning 
with  them ;  all  hope  seemed  to  he  in  the  regen- 
eration of  the  higher  classes.  Jesus  was  the  poor 
man's  philosopher  (Bushnell,  The  Character  of 
Jesus,  pp.  39-42).  He  laid  His  foundations  below 
all  influence,  speaking  to  the  responsive  heart  of 
the  common  people  (Mark  xii.  37),  and  His  power 
has  both  survived  and  increased.  We  are  com- 
ing to  His  method.  One  generation  shows  such 
a  change  that  if  A/fon  Locke  were  written  to-day 
we  should  call  it  snobbery.  So  Christ's  democ- 
racy grows. 

The  quaint  anonymous  poem  "Jesus  the  Car- 
penter "  well  illustrates  the  poor  man's  sympathy 
with  the  poor  Son  of  the  rich  God,  who  chose 
Himself  to  be  a  tradesman. 


•• '  Isn't  this  Joseph's  Son? '    Aye,  it  is  He. 
*  Joseph  the  carpenter ' — same  trade  as  me! 
I  thought  as  I'd  find  it,  I  knew  it  was  here. 
But  my  sight's  getting  queer. 

*'  I  don't  know  right  where  as  His  shed  might  ha'  stood, 
But  often,  as  I've  been  a-planing  my  wood, 
I've  took  oflf  my  hat  just  with  thinking  of  He 
At  the  same  work  as  me. 

"  He  warn't  that  set  up  that  He  couldn't  stoop  down 
And  work  in  the  country  for  folks  in  the  town, 
And  I'll  warrant  He  felt  a  bit  pride  like  I've  done 
At  a  good  job  begun. 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         43 

'*  The  parson  he  knows  that  I'll  not  make  too  free, 
But  on  Sundays  I  feel  as  pleased  as  can  be 
When  I  wears  my  clean  smock  and  sets  in  a  pew 
And  has  thoughts  not  a  few. 

"  I  think  of  as  how  not  the  parson  hissen, 
As  is  teacher  and  father  and  shepherd  of  men. 
Not  he  knows  as  much  of  the  Lord  in  that  shed 
Where  He  earned  His  own  bread. 

'*  And  when  I  goes  home  to  my  missus,  says  she, 
*  Are  you  wanting  your  key?  ' 

For  she  knows  my  queer  ways  and  my  love  for  the  shed 
(We've  been  forty  years  wed). 

*  So  I  comes  right  away  by  mysen  with  the  Book, 
And  I  turns  the  old  pages  and  has  a  good  look 
For  the  text  as  I've  found  as  tells  me  as  He 
Were  the  same  trade  with  me. 

"  Why  don't  I  mark  it?     Ah,  many  says  so! 
But  I  think  I'd  as  lief,  with  your  leave,  let  it  go. 
It  do  seem  that  nice  when  I  fall  on  it  sudden, 
Unexpected,  you  know." 


VII.  He  set  for  Himself  reached^  and  placed  before 
others  a  perfect  standard. 

Who  accuses  Him  of  shortcoming?  Mr. 
Huxley's  attempt  was  pathetic.  "The  highest 
thing  we  have  to  say  of  Jesus,"  says  Wendt,  "  is 
that  with  Him  teaching  and  life  were  perfectly 
blended.  His  teaching  rested  on  His  own  inner 
experience  ;  His  works  and  sufferings,  on  the  other 
hand,  were  a  vivid  representation  and  grand  at- 
testation of  His  teaching.  Thus  He  was  more 
than  a  mere  teacher  of  a  new  religion ;  He  was 
at  the  same  time  the  perfect  representative  of  the 
religious  relationship  to  God  which  He  taught. 
In  this  inward  harmony  of  holy  teaching  and  liv- 


44  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

ing,  He  moved  in  the  presence  of  His  disciples, 
and  we  can  well  comprehend  that,  from  the 
short  space  of  time  during  which  they  were  with 
Him,  although  they  were  able  to  understand  and 
hold  fast  only  a  little  of  the  contents  of  the  teach- 
ing which  struck  them  at  first  as  something  so 
new  and  strange,  yet  they  retained  the  indelible 
impression  of  having  seen  and  experienced  in 
their  midst  in  human  appearance  the  perfect  rev- 
elation of  God"  {The  Teachifig  of  Jesus,  wol.ii.^ 
p.  397).  This  impression  John  records  (John  i. 
14-17). 

But  Jesus  not  only  exemphfied  His  own  stand- 
ard ;  He  demanded  that  all  His  followers  should 
do  so  (Matt.  v.  48;  Luke  vi.  36).  There  are 
political  leaders  who  never  stoop  to  immediate 
dishonesty  or  wrong-doing  themselves,  who  never- 
theless know  that  their  followers  do  so  stoop,  and 
that  such  stooping  is  necessary  to  their  success, 
and  to  the  retention  of  any  followers  at  all. 
Not  so  Jesus.  He  had  no  care  whether  His 
conditions  would  render  Him  disciple-less. 

His  tests  were  fearful.  Inward  perfection  was 
worth  the  sacrifice  of  hands  or  eyes  (Matt.  v.  29, 
30).  The  disciples  were  to  be  preachers.  Their 
chief  business  would  be  to  speak ;  yet  He  warned 
them  against  the  slips  of  speech  from  which  they 
could  not  hope  to  be  free  (Matt.  xii.  36).  No 
reproach  can  rest  on  the  sincerity  or  integrity  of 
such  a  leader  as  this.  Complete  personal  devo- 
tion to  God  was  His  standard  for  Himself. 
Utter  personal  devotion  to  Himself  as  God's  rep- 
resentative, and  to  the  kingdom  of  God  which 
He  was  organizing,  was  His  standard  for  His 
disciples.  Everything  was  to  be  surrendered  for 
this.  "  Whosoever  he  be  of  you,"  He  said,  "  that 
renounceth  not  all  that  he  hath,  cannot  be  My 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         45 

disciple"  (Luke  xiv.  ^^).  So  He  called  John 
and  James  and  Simon  from  their  nets,  and  Levi 
from  his  tax-table  (Luke  v.  lo,  ii,  28).  The 
best  was  worth  the  surrender  of  all  good.  A 
poor  widow  He  commended,  though,  with  un- 
mitigated rashness  of  love,  she  had  cast  absolutely- 
all  her  living  into  the  Treasury  of  the  Temple 
(Luke  xxi.  4).  Excellence  was  worth  perpetual 
self -crucifixion :  "  Whosoever  would  save  his  life 
shall  lose  it ;  but  whosoever  shall  lose  his  hfe  for 
My  sake,  the  same  shall  save  it"  (Luke  ix.  24). 
"What  is  a  man  profited,"  He  asked,  "if  he 
gain  the  whole  world,  and  lose  or  forfeit  his  own 
self?"  (Luke  ix.  25).  He  called  men  to  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  highest  and  best  through  what 
He  named  "the  narrow  door"  (Luke  xiii.  24). 
This  was  the  door,  and  on  its  threshold  there 
were  no  qualifications  or  compromises :  "  If  any 
man  would  come  after  Me,  let  him  deny  himself, 
and  take  up  his  cross  daily,  and  follow  Me " 
(Luke  ix.  23). 

When  disciples  in  large  numbers  began  to 
gather  around  Him,  and  the  temptation  was 
strong  to  modify  His  doctrine,  to  accommodate 
His  teaching  and  demands  to  a  lower  standard, 
Jesus  was  firm  and  faithful.  Under  similar  cir- 
cumstances, Mohammed  gave  way,  made  com- 
promises, abated  the  rigor  of  his  morality  and 
the  demands  of  his  doctrine.  But  when  the  temp- 
tation was  presented  to  Jesus,  He  sought  for 
5ret  sterner  statements  of  His  message.  His  fan 
was  in  His  hand,  and  He  mercilessly  winnowed 
the  chaff  from  the  grain.  A  multitude  whom 
He  had  fed  followed  Him  for  more  loaves  and 
fishes,  glad  to  serve  such  a  King.  He  met  them 
with  a  revelation  of  their  materialism,  challenged 
their  faith  with  the  most  trying  address  He  had 


46  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

yet  delivered,  created  great  unrest  and  dissatis- 
faction, which  finally  issued  in  open  murmuring 
and  desertion ;  and  when  His  own  disciples  sug- 
gestedthat  He  was  going  too  far,  He  turned  upon 
themwith  a  fresh  statement  of  difficulties,  designed 
to  make  clear  who  were  and  who  were  not  prepared 
for  what  He  called  His  baptism,  and  resulting  in 
the  withdrawal  of  all  but  the  twelve  whom  He 
had  chosen  to  be  with  Him,  and  to  whom  He 
now  turned  with  the  sad  question,  "  Will  ye  also 
go  away?  "  and  met  their  protestations  of  fidelity 
with  the  disquieting  charge  that  one  of  them  was 
a  devil  (John  vi.). 

He  was  especially  vehement  in  His  hatred  of 
lies.  Every  he.  He  declared,  was  of  the  devil, 
and  every  liar  a  child  of  the  devil.  There  were 
no  "justifiable  lies  "  in  His  ethics  (John  viii.  44). 
Impurity  He  abhorred.  There  is  no  record  of 
His  ever  having  met  a  leper,  the  very  incarnation 
of  the  conception  of  uncleanness  (Lev.  xiii.  45, 
46),  whom  He  did  not  heal  (Matt.  viii.  2,  3 ;  x. 
8  ;  xi.  5  ;  xxvi.  6  ;  Luke  xvii.  12).  "  Blessed  are 
the  pure  in  heart,"  He  cried  on  the  Galilean  hills : 
"for  they  shall  see  God"  (Matt.  v.  8).  He 
blushed  for  very  shame  at  the  coarseness  of  hu- 
man nature  when  the  woman  taken  in  adultery 
was  brought  before  Him,  and  He  stooped  down 
to  hide  His  shame,  and  wrote  on  the  ground 
(John  viii.  i-ii).  He  gave  sin  no  quarter. 
His  mission  here  was  to  war  against  it,  and  to 
overcome  it  in  His  humanity,  that  humanity 
might  war  against  it,  and  overcome  it  in  His 
divinity.  To  have  compromised  in  His  struggle 
with  lies  and  uncleanness  and  sin  would  have 
been  to  bttray  humanity  and  to  play  false  with 
God.  One  flaw,  one  slip,  one  faintest  inclination 
toward  defect,  and  the  whole  mission  would  have 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         47 

been  marred,  and  Jesus  would  have  lost  forever 
<-he  world  He  came  to  save. 


VIII.  His  ability  to  impart  spiritual  ideas  to  dull, 
ignorant^  prejudiced  people. 

He  was  preeminently  a  teacher.  This  is  one 
of  our  first  glimpses  of  Him  (Matt.  iv.  23). 
Luke  summarizes  His  ministry  as  a  work  of 
doing  and  teaching  (Acts  i.  i).  On  this  faculty 
He  laid  emphasis  (Matt.  xiii.  52  ;  xxviii.  19,  20). 

There  was  need  among  His  own  disciples  for 
such  teaching  (Matt.  xv.  15,  16 ;  John  xiv.  8,  9 ; 
Luke  xxiv.  25,  26).  His  work  was  continual  dis- 
cussion (John  vi.,  vii.,  viii.).  Notice  how,  in 
these  chapters,  Jesus  leads  on  the  open-minded 
to  full  faith,  and  sets  before  those  of  hostile, 
fleshly  heart  the  plain  fact,  put  in  innumerable 
ways,  that  spiritual  truth  requires  a  spiritual 
vision. 

Jesus  succeeded  by  teaching  in  the  simplest 
and  most  human  ways.  He  sought  to  combine 
the  greatest  clearness  with  the  briefest  compass, 
avoiding  always  "  all  considerations  and  circum- 
stances which,  though  neither  multiplying  nor  lim- 
iting the  general  principles  to  be  taught,  would  in 
any  degree  obscui"e  them"  (Wendt,  TheTeachingof 
v/d'jz^j,vol.i.,p.  131).  Heteachesthusby<?^^;;///.f,as, 
"  after  giving  the  exhortation  not  to  resist  one  that 
is  evil,  He  subjoins  the  example  of  how  to  act  if 
struck  by  another  on  the  right  cheek,  or  if  robbed 
by  him  of  a  coat  through  form  of  legal  process  " 
(Matt.  V.  39-41).  He  teaches  also  by  object-les- 
sons (John  xiii.  1-20),  and  as  frequently  by  com- 
parisons^ illustrative  similes  (Mark  x.  15;  Matt. 
X.  16  ;  xiii.  27  ;  Luke  xiii.  34),  or  similes  extended 


48  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

into  parables  (Mark  iv.  2i2)i  34) ;  recognizing  the 
truth  that 

**  Truth  in  closest  words  shall  fail 

When  truth  embodied  in  a  tale 
Shall  enter  in  at  lowly  doors ; 

**  Which  they  may  read  who  bind  the  sheaf 
Or  build  the  house  or  dig  the  grave, 
Or  those  wild  eyes  which  watch  the  wave 
In  roarings  round  the  coral  reef." 


His  teaching  was  constantly  from  the  things 
lEIe  saw,  signs  of  the  high  realities  (Matt.  vi.  28). 
What  suggested  the  figures  in  Matthew  v.  14 ; 
John  iii.  8;  iv.  10,  34,  35;  vi.  35;  vii.  37,  38; 
viii.  12;  XV.  17?  Sometimes  this  symbohc  teach- 
ing was  direct  and  intentional  (Mark  ix.  33-37), 
and  sometimes  indirect  (Mark  viii.  14-21).  As 
in  this  last  case,  He  asked  questions  constantly 
(Matt.  xiii.  51  ;  xvii.  24-27  ;  xxii.  15-22);  or,  as 
in  John  iv.  and  vi.,  constantly  hinted  more  than 
His  auditors  were  able  at  the  time  to  apprehend, 
and  so  led  them  on  toward  the  large  truth  which 
lay  beyond  His  hints. 

He  constantly  and  unweariedly  taught,  not 
afraid  of  wasting  time  or  truth  on  barren  souls. 
Meeting  a  poor  woman  by  a  well-side,  He  at 
once  begins  a  conversation,  and  leads  her  on 
from  truth  to  truth,  till  the  larger  light  breaks 
over  her  (John  iv.  1-26).  All  interruptions  He 
uses  for  the  purposes  of  His  teaching.  They 
never  disconcert  Him  (John  xiii.  25,  36;  xiv.  5, 
8,  22).  Even  on  social  occasions  He  turned  the 
conversation  to  the  deeper  themes  (Luke  xi.  37- 
40),  but  He  did  it  always  in  a  perfectly  genuine 
and  natural  way.  He  could  do  this  (i)  because 
of  the  vi^or  of  His  spiritual  perceptions.     He 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         49 

saw  truth  ever,  and  the  things  of  which  He  spoke 
were  wholly  real  to  Him  (John  v.  19,  20).  He 
did  not  speculate,  or  speak  perfunctorily,  as  one 
whose  profession  it  was  to  preach.  To  lead  men 
into  hght  was  His  hfe.  (2)  His  teaching  was 
self-revelation.  He  was  the  truth  He  taught. 
To  speak  was  to  teach  the  eternal  vitahties  (John 
viii.  1 2  ;  xiv.  6). 

His  followers  were  properly  called  "  disciples," 
learners.  And  it  is  no  wonder  that  Nicodemus 
declared,  voicing  what  was  evidently,  at  the  time, 
the  conviction  of  his  class,  "  We  know  that  Thou 
art  a  teacher  come  from  God."  "Teacher"  was 
His  popular  title,  and  to-day  even  those  who  do 
not  accede  to  the  claim  of  His  supreme  divinity 
look  up  to  Him  as  the  great  Teacher,  "  that  un- 
exampled Rabbi." 

As  a  teacher,  He  combined  constructive 
strength  with  the  most  complete  mastery  of  the 
destructive  processes  of  the  Socratic  method. 
Nowhere  is  this  more  beautifully  shown  than  in 
the  sixth  chapter  of  the  Gospel  of  John,  where, 
in  verses  26-40,  a  dialogue  with  the  people.  He 
lays  bare  the  mercenary  character  of  their  disci- 
pleship,  and  mercilessly  attacks  the  search  for 
'*  fodder,"  upon  which,  like  beasts,  they  have  set 
out,  and  concludes  with  the  direct  and  unmis- 
takable assertion  of  truths,  which  He  frankly  tells 
them  they  would  not  understand  because  they 
were  unwilling  to  meet  the  conditions  of  under- 
standing. In  verses  41-51,  in  an  open  answer 
to  secret  murmuring  of  the  Jews,  He  offers  His 
secret  with  sublime  tact  to  any  man  who  has  the 
spiritual  illumination  to  respond  to  Him,  taking 
thus  the  best  road  to  the  heart  of  any  open-minded 
man  present,  throwing  Himself  on  that  man's 
candor  and  courage;  and  in  verses  52-59  He 


50  THE    MAN    CHRIST    JESUS 

clinches  His  appeal  to  such  a  man  by  yet  more 
open  and  bold  assertion,  at  the  risk  of  ahenating 
yet  more  the  many  who  had  no  capacity  to  re- 
spond. 

He  did  not  teach  at  random  only.  He  knew 
the  hearts  of  men,  and  who  those  men  were  who 
were  His. 

£X.  He  knew  and  touched  the  personalities  of  men, 
Piercifig  the  crust,  and  laying  bare  the  heart, 
He  spoke  directly  to  the  sanctities  of  life. 

To  Him  men  were  souls  having  bodies,  not 
bodies  having  souls.  Compared  with  them,  tra- 
ditions and  institutions  were  as  nothing  (Matt, 
xii.  6,  12  ;  Mark  \\.  27).  His  glance  shot  right 
through  to  the  inner  thought  of  His  hearer  (John 
iii.  2,3).  "  The  Lord's  answers  to  questions  will 
be  found  generally  to  reveal  the  true  thought  of 
the  questioner,  and  to  be  fitted  to  guide  him  to 
the  truth  which  he  is  seeking.  Nicodemus  im- 
plied that  he  and  those  like  him  were  prepared 
to  welcome  the  Lord's  teaching.  This  appeared 
to  him  to  be  of  the  same  order  as  that  with  which 
he  was  already  familiar.  He  does  not  address 
the  Lord  as  if  he  were  ready  to  welcome  Him 
as  'the  Christ,'  or  as  *  the  prophet.*  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Lord's  reply  sets  forth  distinctly  that 
His  work  was  not  simply  to  carry  on  what  was 
already  begun,  but  to  recreate.  The  new  king- 
dom of  which  He  was  founder  could  not  be 
comprehended  till  after  a  new  birth"  (West- 
cott,  Bible  Commentary,  "St.  John's  Gospel," 
p.  48;  cf.  Matt.  xix.  20-22). 

Motive  and  spirit  lay  open  before  His  gaze 
(Luke  xii.  13-15).  Even  in  the  midst  of  con- 
troversy, He  was  ready  to  recognize  ingenuousness 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         5 1 

(Mark  xii.  34).  He  knew  human  nature  (John 
ii.  25).  Accordingly,  He  gave  His  aid  with  dis- 
crimination and  real  helpfulness  (John  iv.  46-53). 

His  emphasis  is  ever  on  the  inner  life.  The 
personal  will,  He  declares,  is  the  seat  of  evil,  and 
its  spring  (Mark  vii.  14-23).  He  aims  to  reach 
this.  For  this  reason  He  deals  with  men  indi- 
vidually (Mark  vii.  ^^  ;  viii.  23),  and  forms  per- 
sonal friendships  with  Peter  and  John,  with  Laza- 
rus, Mary,  and  Martha,  and  with  many  more. 

His  disciples  never  lost  their  amazement  at 
His  insight  into  the  character  and  feehng  of  those 
who  were  brought  close  to  Him.  He  read  their 
thoughts  constantly ;  but  each  revelation  of  them- 
selves which  His  insight  enabled  Him  to  make  to 
them  proved  to  them  a  fuller  revelation  of  Him- 
self (John  xvi.  17-19,  29,  30). 


X.  In  the  prosecution  of  His  work  He  was  chari- 
table ever^  but  He  was  no  liberal. 

There  is  a  vital  distinction  here.  "Charity 
holds  fast  the  minutest  atom  of  truth  as  being 
precious  and  divine,  offended  by  even  as  much 
as  a  thought  of  laxity.  Liberahty  loosens  the 
terms  of  truth,  permitting  easily,  and  with  care- 
less magnanimity,  variations  from  it ;  consenting, 
as  it  were  in  its  own  sovereignty,  to  overlook  or 
allow  them ;  and  subsiding  ere  long  into  a  hcen- 
tious  indifference  to  all  truth  and  a  general  de- 
fect of  responsibihty  in  regard  to  it.  Charity 
extends  allowance  to  men ;  liberality  to  falsities 
themselves  "    (Bushnell,  The  Character  of  Jesus, 

PP-  52,  53)- 

Nothing  can  surpass  Christ's  loving  charitable- 
ness (Luke  ix.  49-56),  but  He  is  no  conscience- 


52  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

surrendering  liberal  (John  viii.  44,  55).  Charity's 
only  barrier  is  clear  opposition.  "There  is,"  it 
says,  "an  antagonistic  and  irreconcilable  position ; 
but  he  who  has  not  gone  as  far  as  that,  who  is  not 
against  us,  is  for  us  (Luke  ix.  50).  No  doubtful 
or  hesitant,  searching  or  questioning  soul  can 
be  counted  our  foe."  But  liberality  will  have 
no  barriers  at  all.  "  There  can  be  none  against 
us,"  is  its  voice;  "for,  rather  than  have  opposi- 
tion, we  will  waive  the  absolute  claims  of  our 
position.  Agreement  or  general  truce  is  more 
to  be  desired  than  truth  with  conflict.  There  is 
room  for  all."  Liberality  cannot  say  what  Christ 
does  say :  "  He  that  is  not  with  Me  is  against  Me  " 
(Matt.  xii.  30).  His  charitableness  and  fidelity 
to  principle  are  shown  side  by  side  in  John  viii. 
7,  II,  where,  while  dealing  gently  with  the 
woman.  He  reserves  all  judgment  and  does  not 
lower  His  standard. 

The  spirit  of  Jesus  is  so  often  cited  in  defense 
of  a  disloyally  compromising  or  non-combatani 
attitude  in  the  struggle  for  truth  that  we  need  to 
insist  on  His  strong,  unhesitating  impeachment 
of  falsehood,  error,  and  duphcity  (Matt,  xxiii. ; 
xi.  20-24).  He  did  not  belong  to  a  "peace  at 
any  price"  party.  "Truth  at  any  price"  was 
His  motto  (Luke  xii.  51  ;  Matt.  v.  29,  30). 

In  this,  as  in  all  things,  Jesus  kept  His  balance. 
There  was  no  popular  laxity  in  His  doctrine 
(Luke  xiii.  23,  24) ;  yet  there  was  no  bigoted 
excess  (Mark  ix.  41-43).  If,  on  the  one  hand, 
He  set  an  excruciatingly  high  standard  and 
imposed  most  painful  conditions,  on  the  other, 
He  declared  that  at  the  last  men  would  be  as- 
signed their  places  on  a  basis  of  judgment  so  just, 
so  loving,  so  tender,  that  no  cne  could  rightly 
complain  (Matt.  xxv.  34-46)      The  election  of 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF   WORK         53 

righteousness  and  the  universah'sm  of  love  were 
not  inconsistent  to  Him  (Matt.  xi.  27,  28). 

We  ourselves  are  too  liable  to  error  to  tread 
with  overmuch  boldness  in  this  path.  Indigna- 
tion at  the  motes  of  error  in  the  eyes  of  our 
brothers  too  often  blinds  us  to  the  beams  of  false- 
hood in  our  own.  Paul's  advice  is  sound  (Rom. 
xiv.  22). 

"  Deal  meekly,  gendy,  with  the  hopes  that  guide 
The  lowliest  brother  straying  from  thy  side ; 
If  right  they  bid  thee  tremble  for  thine  own, 
If  wrong  the  verdict  is  for  God  alone. 

"  Strive  with  the  wanderer  from  the  beaten  path, 
Bearing  thy  message  meekly,  not  in  wrath ; 
Weep  for  the  frail  that  err,  the  weak  that  fall ; 
Have  thine  own  faith,  but  hope  and  pray  for  alL" 

Even  with  us,  however,  it  is  better  to  err  on 
the  side  of  losing  peace  than  on  the  side  of  los- 
ing truth  (Rom.  xii.  18).  Peace  is  not  always 
possible,  and  war  is  better  than  truth  betrayed, 
or  fellowship  with  lies. 

XI.  He  ivas  iiever  anxious  for  His  success. 

Always  "  He  speaks  as  one  who  is  sure  of  the 
compactness  and  faultlessness  of  His  design. 
:.ie  is  certain  that  no  human  obstacle  can  balk 
its  reahzation.  He  produces  it  simply,  without 
effort,  without  reserve,  without  exaggeration. 
He  is  calm  because  He  is  in  possession  of  the 
future,  and  sees  His  way  clearly  through  its 
tangled  maze  "  (Liddon,  The  Divinity  of  Our  Lord 
p.  117).  It  is  this  that  makes  His  hfe  so  con- 
fident, so  seemingly  careless.  He  never  quarrels 
with  events.  He  simply  meets  them  in  no  haste, 
and  with  no  desire  that  they  should  be  otherwise. 


54  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

He  does  not  seek  or  make  opportunities  for 
speeches  or  deeds.  He  simply  accepts  such  as 
come.  Even  when  the  tide  sets  heavily  against 
Him,  He  keeps  calmly  on  His  course.  His  dis- 
ciples tell  Him  that  the  most  po^verful  class  in 
the  nation  are  offended  at  Him  ;  it  gives  Him  no 
uneasiness  (Matt.  xv.  12-14).  His  statement  of 
His  doctrine  proves  distasteful;  He  does  not 
modify  it  to  make  it  acceptable;  He  seems  at 
times  even  to  accentuate  its  objectionable  features 
(John  vi.  41-59),  regardless  of  the  effect  of  such 
a  course  upon  His  popularity,  or  upon  the  num- 
bers of  His  followers,  and  with  the  purpose  even 
of  repelling  those  who  had  no  sympathy  with  Him 
or  with  the  life  of  spirit.  When  He  preached  His 
first  sermon  in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth  (Luke 
iv.  16-30),  the  people  at  first  "bore  witness  to 
the  gracious  words  "  which  He  spoke  to  them ; 
but  as  He  proceeded,  they  were  filled  with  indig- 
nant wrath  at  His  rejection  of  His  countrymen, 
to  which  He  gives  added  point  by  citing  the  ex- 
amples of  the  two  great  prophets.  He  saw  the 
effect  His  words  were  producing,  but  He  only 
broadened  His  hint  as  to  His  mission  to  the 
Gentiles.  Thereupon  they  thrust  Him  out  with  | 
violence ;  but  He  calmly  passed  through  their 
angry  ranks,  so  impressing  His  enemies  by  the 
dignity  of  His  bearing  that  they  had  not  courage 
to  stop  or  harm  Him.  There  is  a  yet  finer  illus- 
tration of  His  disregard  of  the  formal  conditions 
of  success  in  John  vi.  60-66.  The  disciples  had 
stumbled  at  the  difficulty  of  accepting  life  only 
through  the  communicated  humanity  of  the  in- 
carnate Son ;  so  He  proceeds  to  state  the  con- 
ditions of  discipleship  yet  more  clearly,  ( i )  (verses 
62,  63)  because  the  passion,  resurrection,  and 
ascension  will  prove  a   yet  greater  stumbling- 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         55 

block  to  them,  and  (2)  because  they  would  have 
to  bear  (verse  64)  the  trial  of  treachery  revealed 
in  the  midst  of  them,  which  would  seem  to  be  in- 
consistent with  His  claims  (Westcott,  Bible  Com- 
fnentary,  "St.  John's  Gospel,"  pp.  109,  no). 
Apparently  careless  of  misrepresentation  and 
misinterpretation,  Jesus  never  wrote  a  word. 
Like  Socrates,  He  preferred  writing  on  living 
hearts  to  writing  on  dead  sheepskins. 

His  careless  confidence  in  His  own  powers  was 
shown  in  the  way  He  constantly  risked  much  on 
His  ability  to  secure  apparently  impossible  results, 
when  He  might  have  avoided  risk  by  making 
some  provision  for  possible  failure  (Luke  ix.  13- 
17;  Mark  ix.  19).  What  if  He  had  failed  in 
these  cases  to  satisfy  the  expectations  He  had 
unnecessarily  aroused? 

In  the  midst  of  gathering  gloom,  conscious  of 
approaching  betrayal  and  death.  He  calmly  as- 
sures Peter  of  the  eternity  of  His  Church  (Matt, 
xvi.  18,  19),  and  from  the  beginning  to  the  end 
keeps  unshaken  faith  in  the  certainty  of  His  tri^ 
umph  (John  xii.  32  ;  xvii.  20,  21).  "Fully  con- 
scious that  the  world  is  against  Him,  scoffed  at, 
despised,  hated,  alone,  too,  in  His  cause,  and 
without  partizans  that  have  any  public  influence, 
no  man  has  ever  been  able  to  detect  in  Him  the 
least  anxiety  for  the  final  success  of  His  doctrine." 
His  question  as  to  the  popular  opinion  of  Him 
(Matt.  xvi.  13-21)  is  asked,  apparently,  not  so 
much  for  information  as  to  the  world's  attitude 
toward  His  claims  as  to  serve  as  a  text  from 
which  He  proceeds  to  indicate  to  His  followers 
that  His  success  will  come  through  a  renuncia- 
tion of  Him  and  His  claims,  culminating  in  His 
death.  *'  He  is  never  jealous  of  contradiction. 
When  His  friends  display  their  ignorance  and 


56  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

incapacity,  or  even  when  they  forsake  Him,  He 
is  never  ruffled  or  disturbed.  He  rests  on  His 
words  with  a  composure  as  majestic  as  if  He 
were  sitting  on  the  circle  of  the  heavens.  Now 
the  consciousness  of  truth,  we  are  not  about  to 
deny,  has  an  effect  of  this  nature  in  every  truly 
great  mind.  But  when  has  it  had  an  effect  so 
complete?  What  human  teacher,  what  great 
philanthropist,  has  not  shown  some  traces  of 
anxiety  for  his  school  that  indicated  his  weak- 
ness, some  pride  in  his  friends,  some  traces  of 
wounded  ambition  when  disputed  or  denied? 
But  here  is  a  lone  man,  a  humble,  uneducated 
man,  never  schooled  into  the  elegant  fiction  of 
an  assumed  composure,  or  practised  in  the  con- 
ventional dignities  of  manners,  and  yet  finding 
all  the  world  against  Him,  the  world  does  not 
rest  upon  its  axle  more  firmly  than  He  upon  His 
doctrine  "  (Bushnell,  The  Character  of  Jesus, ^.  59). 
When  Pilate  assumes  power  over  Him,  He 
calmly  declares  his  impotence  (John  xix.  10-12), 
but  asserts  that  He  is  the  King  of  the  eternal 
kingdom  of  truth. 

This  confidence  of  Jesus  is  explicable  only  on 
the  supposition  of  an  exceptional  relation  to  God. 
In  a  peculiar  sense,  He  was  doing  God's  will, 
which  He  knew  was  in  the  end  sure  to  triumph 
(John  iv.  34,  V.  30,  vi.  38;  Heb.  x.  7).  His 
will  was  identified  with  God's.  Obedience  and 
duty,  in  our  human  terms,  grown  into  divine 
sympathy  and  love  in  Him,  were  the  key-words 
of  His  life  (Phil.  ii.  5-8  ;  Heb.  v.  7,  8).  Through 
this  obedience  He  wrought  out  what  we  enter 
into  through  obedience  (Rom.  v.  19  ;  Heb.  v.  9). 
Obedience  is  not  all ;  it  is  much,  however— bet- 
ter even  than  sacrifice  (i  Sam.  xv.  22),  and  Jesus 
deemed  it  love's  best  expression  (John  xiv.  15). 


HIS   PLANS   AND   METHODS    OF   WORK         57 

'  The  longer  on  this  earth  we  live, 
And  weigh  the  various  qualities  of  men, 

Seeing  how  most  are  fugitive 
Or  fitful  gifts  at  best  of  now  and  then, 
Wind-wavered,  corpse-lights,  daughters  of  the  fen, 

The  more  we  feel  the  high,  stern-featured  beauty 

Of  plain  devotedness  to  duty, 
Steadfast  and  still,  nor  paid  with  mortal  praise! 

But  finding  amplest  recompense 

For  life's  ungarlanded  expense 
In  work  done  squarely  and  un wasted  days." 

In  such  love  of  duty,  and  duty-doing  for  love's 
sake,  there  is  no  fear  even  with  us  (i  John  iv.  18). 
This  was  the  teaching  of  Christ's  example  as 
truly  as  of  His  words,  in  George  Macdonald's 
summary,  "  First,  that  a  man's  business  is  to  do 
the  will  of  God;  second,  that  God  takes  upon 
Himself  the  care  of  the  man ;  and  third,  there- 
fore, that  a  man  must  never  be  afraid  of  any- 
thing "  {Robert  Falconer,  part  iii.,  chap.  H.). 


XII.  He  was  easy  of  approach,  hid  held  Himself 
completely  mdependent,  superior  to  human  in- 
tercessions a?id  judgments. 

Even  as  a  child  He  showed  an  independence, 
respectful  and  childlike,  born  of  some  conscious- 
ness of  His  divine  relationship  (Luke  ii.  48,  49). 
When  He  had  entered  upon  His  work,  this  inde- 
pendence could  not  be  surrendered  even  to  the 
claims  of  family  relationship  (Mark  iii.  31-35). 
Some  have  thought  that  this  assertion  sometimes 
went  quite  far,  as  in  John  ii.  4,  "  Woman,  what 
have  I  to  do  with  thee?"  addressed  to  His 
mother.  But  there  is  no  tinge  of  severity  or 
reproof  in  the  term  "woman."  The  address  is 
courteous,  even  tender :  "  Leave  Me  to  Myself, 
mother;  let  Me  follow  My  own  course." 


5$  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

He  was  always  accessible.  His  disciples  seldom 
hesitated  to  approach  Him,  or  to  interrupt  or  even 
contradict  Him  (Mark  i.  35-37  ;  John  xiii.  35, 
36  ;  xiv.  4,  5,8;  Matt.  xvi.  21,  22).  The  poor  and 
the  sinful  drew  near  Him  unhindered  and  with 
confidence  (Luke  vii.  37,  38;  viii.  43,  44).  He 
responded  to  their  needs  (Mark  ix.  15,  22  ;  John 
xi.  3,  11).  Yet  He  was  superior  to  their  judg- 
ments, and  the  judgments  of  all. 

1.  It  was  known  that  He  was  a  man  of  sym- 
pathy and  of  power,  and  these  were  frequently 
sought  and  appealed  to.  Such  appeals  Jesus  de- 
cHned  to  answer  unless  they  were  the  product  or 
the  promise  of  faith  (Mark  ix.  22-25).  -^^  ^^^^ 
the  wealth  of  His  sympathies  in  the  leash  of  His 
understanding  of  man's  nature  and  the  only  light 
ways  of  permanently  helping  it. 

2.  He  never  took  the  trouble  to  justify  con- 
duct of  His  hable  to  misunderstanding,  (i)  A 
human  teacher  would  have  justified  his  sleep  in 
the  hour  of  his  disciples'  peril,  and  in  reply  to 
their  sharp  and  fear-filled  rebuke  (Mark  iv.  37- 
41).  (2)  A  human  friend  would  have  justified 
his  delay  in  coming  to  the  aid  of  Lazarus  (John 
xi.  3,  6,  21,  32).  It  may  be,  as  Westcott  main- 
tains, that  the  words  of  Martha  and  Mary,  ex- 
pressing the  conviction  that  if  Christ  had  been 
with  them  their  brother  wotild  have  been  saved, 
"  are  a  simple  expression  of  faith  and  love,  with- 
out any  admixture  of  complaint.  Martha  does 
not  say,  '  If  Thou  hadst  come  ;'  she  does  not  even 
emphasize  the  pronoun;  she  thinks  only  of  a 
necessary  absence."  But  all  the  more,  then,  if 
the  sisters  were  not  reproachful,  would  a  human 
friend  have  tried  to  justify  conduct  hkely  to 
seem,  to  the  other  friends  of  the  sisters,  reproach- 
able   (John  xi.  37).     Why  had  not  Jesus,  the 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         59 

opener  of  the  eyes  of  the  man  born  blind,  known 
of  the  need  of  Lazarus  even  before  the  messen- 
gers  were  sent?  Why  had  He  delayed  until  too 
late?     He  made  no  defense. 

3.  At  one  time  Peter  strongly  deprecated  Jesus' 
dark  view  of  the  future,  and  with  earnest  and 
sympathetic  devotion  entered  his  protestations 
(Mark  viii.  31-33).  Turning  away  from  Peter 
that  He  might  have  him,  as  Satan's  representa- 
tive, behind  His  back,  He  spoke  with  no  per- 
sonal bitterness,  but  with  sharp  rebuke  for  the 
principle  or  tendency  of  mind  of  which  He  said 
Peter  "savored." 

4.  He  never  asked  any  one's  advice.  It  was 
almost  never  proffered  to  Him,  and  was  almost 
invariably  rejected  when  it  was.  Jesus  was  His 
own  and  only  adviser.  Other  leaders  or  reform- 
ers have  had  some  friend  or  friends  on  whom  to 
lean  for  help  and  advice  and  the  supply  of  the 
needed  balance.  Jesus  had  none;  He  needed 
none  (John  ii.  24,  25). 

5.  He  never  asked  any  one  his  opinion  of 
Him,  save  Simon  Peter;  and  then  He  asked 
only  to  make  the  question  a  stepping-stone  in 
His  teaching.  The  human  leader  is  not  above 
praise.  Jesus  was  sublimely  superior  to  the 
opinions  of  men  about  Him  (John  viii.  21-30; 
vi.  60-65).  -^^  took  no  pains  to  correct  wrong 
opinions  which  were  founded  on  ignorance  or 
■mistake,  although  they  did  Him  grave  injustice 

(John  vii.  52).  On  the  other  hand,  "no  latent 
wish  was  in  His  heart  to  conceal  any  circumstance 
connected  with  His  origin,  His  past  history,  or 
His  present  position,  from  the  fear  that  it  might 
be  unfavorable  to  His  reputation  and  success" 
(Young,  The  Christ  of  History^  p.  84). 

6.  He  never  asked  any  one  to  pray  for  Him. 


6o  THE   MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

In  Getnsemane's  gloom  He  wished  His  friends 
to  be  near ;  so  He  said,  "  Tarry  here."  And  He 
needed  their  sympathies;  so  He  said,  "Watch 
with  Me."  But  He  needed  their  aid  less  than 
they  needed  it  themselves ;  so  He  bade  them 
pray  not  for  His,  but  for  their  own  safe-keeping 
(Matt.  xxvi.  36-46).  And  even  here,  in  the 
garden  of  suffering,  He  received  no  help  from 
His  disciples,  whom  He  had  asked  to  be  near. 
"  When  the  world  was  most  in  need  of  a  loyal 
Master,  and  when  loyalty  cost  an  unspeakable 
price,  Christ  was  true ;  when  the  Master  was 
most  in  need  of  friendship,  and  when  friendship 
was  made  easy  and  almost  inevitable  by  the  ten- 
der solicitation  of  the  sublime  sufferer,  the  dis- 
ciples were  false  "  (Gordon,  The  Christ  of  To-day ^ 
p.  130). 

Apart  from  the  prayer  He  taught  His  disciples, 
the  only  thing  for  which  He  ever  asked  His  dis- 
ciples to  pray  was  that  more  laborers  might  be 
provided  for  the  great  and  ready  harvest  (Matt, 
ix.  37,  38),  It  was  not  what  He  needed;  it  was 
what  they  needed  that  was  always  in  His  mind, 
even  in  His  last  hours  (Luke  xxii.  31-33).  And 
when  the  women  of  Jerusalem  followed  Him  to 
Calvary,  as  He  and  Simon  bore  His  cross— the 
woman  heart  instinctively  trusting  and  loving 
Him,  though  men  were  bhnded  and  led  astray — 
and  wept  for  Him  with  loud  lamentations  and 
great  sobbing,  He  bade  them  give  their  sympa- 
thy to  those  who  needed  it,  upon  whose  heads 
their  husbands  had  laid  the  curse  of  innocent 
blood  (Luke  xxiii.  27,  28).  The  significance  of 
this  will  be  apparent  from  a  comparison  of  it 
with  the  persistent  pleadings  of  the  Apostle  Paul 
for  the  prayers  of  the  churches  in  his  behalf. 

7.  His  indifference  as  to  the  effects  of  His 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         6i 

teaching  has  been  indicated  as  one  of  the  expres- 
sions of  His  confidence  in  His  rectitude  and  suc- 
cess. It  is  an  evidence  also  of  His  independence. 
Ae  was  unconcerned  whether  His  teaching  hurt 
or  not.  He  wished  to  hurt  all  that  was  hurtable 
by  it  (Matt.  xv.  12-14).  He  M^as  doing  His 
Father's  will  and  could  leave  all  with  His  Father. 
His  judgment  and  not  that  of  man  concerned 
Him  (John  viii.  44-55;  John  xviii.  11).  Paul 
learned  this  secret  (i  Cor.  iv.  3,  4). 

8.  He  never  hesitated,  therefore,  to  warn  His 
disciples  of  the  unpopularity  of  His  cause,  and  to 
set  before  them  the  hard  conditions  of  entrance 
upon  it  (Luke  ix.  23,  57-62),  of  adherence  to  it 
(Matt.  xxiv.  9;  John  xv.  18,  19;  xvii.  14),  of 
judgment  by  it  (Matt.  vii.  21). 

9.  He  was  not  affected  by  the  social  prejudices 
of  the  day.  At  a  time  when  the  antagonism  to 
Him  had  not  hardened  into  the  purpose  of  mur- 
der, and  the  influential  men  of  the  nation  were 
listening  to  His  teaching  and  examining  His 
claims  and  watching  His  growing  movement  with 
an  interest  that  might  yet  be  turned  to  His  sup- 
port, and  it  was  accordingly  most  undesirable 
that  He  should  in  any  unnecessary  way  cross 
their  prejudices,  "  Christ  singles  out  Levi  the 
publican,  calls  him  as  an  apostle,  and  goes  to 
his  house  to  feast  with  a  large  company  of  other 
publicans.  The  great  people  remonstrate  with 
Him  angrily.  Such  an  act  outrages  all  their 
notions  of  the  orthodox  conduct  of  a  prophet. 
Christ  replies  simply  that  He  has  come  to  call  sin- 
ners, not  the  righteous,  to  repentance  "  (Hughes, 
TAe  Maiiliness  of  Christ,  p.  105).  With  the  same 
independence  of  popular  opinion,  He  accepted 
the  invitation  of  Simon  the  Pharisee  to  dine  at 
his  house,  though  His  peasant  and  proletariat 


62  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

followers  were  likely  to  condemn  His  acceptance 
of  the  patronizing  hospitality  of  the  rich.  But 
He  went  nevertheless,  and  "  the  story  of  the 
woman,  a  sinner,  who  gets  into  the  room  and 
anoints  Christ's  feet,  and  the  use  which  He  makeu 
of  the  incident— to  bring  home  to  Simon's  mind, 
with  the  most  exquisite  temper  and  courtesy,  but 
with  the  most  faithful  firmness,  his  shortcomings 
as  a  host,  and  his  wsCnt  of  true  insight  as  a  man 
— are  among  the  finest  illustrations  we  have  of 
His  method  with  the  great  and  powerful  of  His 
nation  "  (Hughes,  T/ie  Manliness  of  Christ,  pp. 
io6,  107). 

Who  was  this  independent  man  who  felt  able 
to  ignore  the  opinions  of  men  about  Him,  who 
slighted  the  most  cherished  traditions,  and  over- 
rode the  social  prejudices  of  classes  which  looked 
down  upon  Him  as  a  peasant,  and  His  followers 
as  despicable  and  boorish?  He  had  no  wealth, 
no  political  authority,  no  military  support;  hfi 
was  a  youth  without  name  and  without  family 
position,  but  He  looked  down  on  all  the  petty 
conventional  moyement  of  the  day,  and  treated 
it  and  the  petty  conventional  men  who  moved 
in  it  as  their  Master. 


X  n  I .  He  was  never  caught  off  guard,  never  vexed ^ 
disconcerted,  hastened,  or  irritated,  or  shoiv7i, 
by  some  sudden  revelation,  to  be  other  than 
He  seemed  and  claimed  to  be. 

I.  He  was  ever  perfectly  self-possessed,  even 
when  His  conduct  was  challenged  and  brought 
under  criticism  (Matt.  xxi.  23-27).  In  response 
to  a  loud  challenge  of  His  authority.  He  quietly 
asked  what  the  opinion  of  His  questioners  was 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         6;^ 

as  to  the  character  of  the  mission  of  John  the 
Baptist.  Was  it  human  or  divine?  Fear  for- 
bade their  choice  of  one  alternative.  The  other 
i/ivolved  an  acknowledgment  of  His  claims ;  for 
John  had  expressly  borne  witness  to  Jesus  as  the 
Mighty  One  who  should  come  after  him  and  thor- 
oughly try  the  true  from  the  false.  His  testimony, 
therefore,  if  of  God,  closed  the  case.  The  appro- 
priateness of  this  thrust  of  Jesus  is  the  more  evi- 
dent when  we  remember  that  these  questioners 
had  made  careful  inquiries  as  to  the  authority  of 
John,  and  might  be  presumed  to  have  a  matured 
opinion  (John  i.  19-28). 

2.  He  never  retracted  anything.  Much  of  His 
speech  was  wholly  extemporaneous,  called  out  by 
sharp  personal  discussion  and  debate,  when  His 
life  was  even  threatened  (John  x.  30-34).  Though 
He  was  often  pressed  thus,  He  never  let  slip  any 
exaggerations  or  misstatements  which  He  had 
afterward  to  modify  or  correct  or  retract.  The 
consistency  of  His  character  found  expression  in 
perfect  consistency  of  utterance  and  manifesta- 
tion (John  viii.  25). 

3.  He  made  no  alterations  in  His  plans  or  pur- 
poses. Von  Moltke  is  said  to  have  lain  down  to 
sleep  in  one  of  his  campaigns,  with  orders  given 
for  all  his  troops  based  upon  the  knowledge  of 
his  enemy's  plans  and  movements.  During  the 
night  the  enemy  changed  his  movements,  and 
Von  Moltke  was  awakened  to  give  new  orders 
in  accordance  with  the  changed  conditions.  On 
hearing  of  the  enemy's  change,  however.  Von 
Moltke  simply  said,  "  Portfolio  No.  4."  He 
had  already  prepared  complete  orders  to  meet 
the  change  which  he  foresaw  might  be  made. 
Jesus  had  no  alternative  plans  to  be  determined 
by  circumstances.    No  circumstances  could  arise 


64  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

to  which  His  projected  plan  was  not  already  ad- 
justed. 

4.  He  was  able  to  turn  every  occurrence  to  a 
personal,  spiritual  purpose  effectively,  without 
flat,  professional  moralizing.  He  was  speaking 
once  of  judgments  impending,  and  certain  per- 
sons, partly  desiring  to  be  heard,  perhaps  partly 
desiring  to  illustrate  His  truth,  told  Him  of  the 
great  judgment  which  had  fallen  upon  the  Gali- 
leans. It  was  a  startling  bit  of  news,  if  He  had 
not  heard  it ;  but  instead  of  being  diverted  by  it, 
or  using  it  as  His  informers  had  intended,  He 
ttuned  the  moral  of  it  upon  them  (Luke  xiii.  1-5). 
It  was  His  habit  to  lead  on  always  to  a  spiritual 
principle  even  from  most  unpromising  beginnings 
(John  iv.  7-10;  vi.  24-27  ;  Matt.  xvi.  6-12). 

5.  No  one  ever  equaled  Him  in  the  dignity 
and  quiet  authority  of  His  disputation.  He  would 
crush  an  opposition  by  a  simple  question.  He 
indulged  in  no  passionate  tirades,  such  as  men 
use  to  silence  antagonists  whom  they  cannot  or 
will  not  take  pains  to  answer.  Once  He  burst 
forth  into  a  fearful  denunciation  of  the  scribes 
and  Pharisees ;  but  this  was  only  after  all  His 
efforts  to  awaken  in  them  any  response  to  His 
divine  intimations,  any  longing  after  the  freedom 
and  love  of  God,  had  failed,  and  was  in  the  na- 
ture of  a  final  judgment  and  farewell.  Moreover, 
the  intense  anger  of  this  denunciation  contained 
no  element  of  envy  or  hatred  or  fear  or  temper. 
It  was  passion,  but  the  passion  of  an  innocent 
and  true  soul  (Matt,  xxiii.).  Even  in  the  heat  of 
great  controversy  He  was  as  calm  as  the  Galilean 
Sea  asleep.  The  Pharisees  and  Herodians  early 
compacted  against  Him  (Mark  iii.  6),  and,  after 
long  waiting,  perfected  a  plan  of  attack  (Mark 
xii.  13-17).     They  proposed  to  Him  a  question 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         65 

which  would  force  Him,  they  thought,  upon  one 
horn  or  the  other  of  a  deadly  dilemma.  The 
question  seemed  ingenuous,  as  the  Herodians  at 
the  time  appear  to  have  been  on  bad  terms  with 
the  Roman  governor  (Luke  xxiii.  12).  Jesus 
did  not  avoid  the  issue.  He  gave  them  a  clear 
answer  that  left  them  no  nearer  than  they  were 
before  to  any  entanglement  of  Him  with  the 
authorities,  or  impeachment  of  Him  before  the 
people.  And  they  looked  at  one  another  in  blank 
astonishment.  When  the  Sadducees,  coming 
next,  propose  their  conundrum,  Christ  meets 
them  on  their  own  scriptural  ground,  and,  pass- 
ing by  their  silly  riddle,  attacks  their  skepticism 
regarding  immortality  by  evidence  which  even 
they  accept,  finding  proof  for  them  even  in  their 
Pentateuch  (Mark  xii.  18-27).  And  then,  in  the 
twinkling  of  an  eye,  the  whole  antagonistic 
temper  which  the  perfidy  and  obtuseness  of  His 
assailants  had  been  hardening,  softens  and  is 
laid  aside,  as  He  catches  the  gleam  of  true  char- 
acter, and  even  embryonic  response,  in  the  heart 
of  the  sincere  scribe  (Mark  xii.  28-34). 

6.  He  was  surprised  only  by  the  hardness  of 
heart  of  those  who  should  have  believed  (Mark 
vi.  6),  and  the  dullness  of  spiritual  sympathy  even 
in  those  whom  He  had  personally  trained  and 
loved  (Mark  xiv.  37-42).  But  His  surprise  was 
the  daughter,  not  of  ignorance — of  failure  to 
understand  the  conditions  governing  His  work — 
but  of  His  keen  knowledge  of  what  it  was  to- 
which  men  were  strangers.  He  did  not  wonder 
at  what  men  suffered;  He  wondered  at  what 
they  lost. 

7.  Though  poor,  hunted,  despised,  and  ap- 
parently defeated,  He  was  not  cast  down,  nor 
did  He  ever  break  amid  life's  Httle  worries  and 


66  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

vexations.  "  Observe  Him  in  what  may  be  called 
the  common  trials  of  existence;  for  if  you  will 
put  a  character  to  the  severest  of  all  tests,  see 
whether  it  can  bear  without  faltering  the  Httle 
common  ills  and  hindrances  of  life.  Many  a 
man  will  go  to  his  martyrdom  with  a  spirit  of 
firmness  and  heroic  composure  whom  a  little 
weariness  or  nervous  exhaustion,  some  silly  prej- 
udice or  capricious  opposition,  would  for  a  mo- 
ment throw  into  a  fit  of  vexation  or  ill  nature. 
Great  occasions  rally  great  principles,  and  brace 
the  mind  to  a  lofty  bearing,  a  bearing  that  is 
even  above  itself ;  but  trials  that  make  no  occa- 
sion at  all  leave  it  to  show  the  goodness  and 
beauty  it  has  in  its  own  disposition.  And  here 
precisely  is  the  superhuman  glory  of  Christ  as  a 
character — that  He  is  just  as  perfect  in  little  trials 
as  in  great  ones.  In  all  the  history  of  His  life 
we  are  not  able  to  detect  the  faintest  indication 
that  He  slips  or  falters.  And  this  is  the  more 
remarkable  that  He  is  prosecuting  so  great  a 
work,  with  so  great  enthusiasm,  counting  it  His 
meat  and  drink,  and  pouring  into  it  all  the  ener- 
gies of  His  life.  For  when  men  have  great  works 
on  hand,  their  very  enthusiasm  runs  to  impatience 
when  thwarted  or  unreasonably  hindered ;  their 
soul  strikes  fire  against  the  obstacles  they  meet ; 
they  worry  themselves  at  every  hindrance,  every 
disappointment,  and  break  out  in  stormy  and 
fanatical  violence.  But  Jesus,  for  some  reason, 
is  just  as  even,  just  as  serene,  in  all  His  petty 
vexations  and  hindrances  as  if  He  had  nothing 
on  hand  to  do.  A  kind  of  sacred  patience  in- 
vests Him  everywhere.  .  .  .  He  is  never  dis- 
heartened, never  fretted  or  ruffled"  (Bushnell, 
The  Character  of  Jesus,  pp.  29,  30). 

There  was  a  twofold  reason  for  this,     (i)  He 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         67 

knew  that  His  plan,  and  all  the  conditions  in 
which  it  was  to  be  worked  out,  were  alike  under 
the  perfect  control  of  God,  whose  will  He  had 
c:ome  to  do.  (2)  Time  held  no  power  over  Him. 
]t  could  bring  no  stage  in  His  plan's  development 
too  soon,  and  could  unduly  retard  none.  The 
**  hours  "  were  adjusted  for  Him  ;  the  calendar  of 
all  hfe  had  been  arranged  with  this  in  view,  and 
His  soul  rested  in  this  liberty  (John  ii.  4 ;  vii.  6 ; 
xii.  23  ;  xiii.  i  ;  xvii.  i). 

And  this  confident,  composed  man  was  not  old 
and  experienced,  sobered  by  the  remembrance  of 
many  errors,  and  calm  with  the  tranquilhty  which 
old  age  brings.  He  was  little  more  than  a  youth, 
preaching  His  movement  alone,  unsupported  by 
the  great  or  the  rich  of  the  nation,  and  doomed, 
iJis  He  well  knew,  to  a  hideous  and  ignominious 
death. 

XIV.  His  management  of  men. 

He  knew  what  to  do  even  with  an  Oriental 
throng  (Luke  ix.  14;  Mark  viii.  6).  And  when 
He  seated  these  multitudes,  it  was  part  of  His 
loving  thoughtfulness  to  choose  a  place  where 
there  was  abundance  of  grass  (John  vi.  10). 

His  knowledge  of  character  and  His  practical 
skill  and  wisdom  in  the  control  of  men  were 
shown  in  His  arrangement  of  the  Twelve  when 
He  divided  them  into  pairs  (Luke  vi.  13-16; 
Matt.  X.  2-4) :  facile,  impulsive,  outspoken  Peter, 
and  calm,  conservative,  cautious,  Scotch  Andrew ; 
elderly,  sober  James,  and  the  bright,  light-footed, 
lovable  lad,  John. 

**  For  as  of  old,  when,  two  by  two, 

His  heroed  saints  the  Saviour  sent. 


68  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

To  soften  hearts  like  morning  dew, 
When  He  to  shine  in  mercy  meant, 

'*  He  loves  when  youth  and  age  are  met, 
Fervent  old  age  and  youth  serene ; 
Their  high  and  low  in  concord  set 
For  sacred  song,  joy's  golden  mean." 

Slow-witted,  heavy,  but  honest-hearted  Philip, 
and  quick-minded,  alert  Nathanael,  now  named 
Bartholomew ;  clear-headed,  ready  of  apprehen- 
sion, careful,  conscientious,  scientifically  scrupu- 
lous, doubtful  Thomas,  and  Matthew,  of  fearless 
and  immediate  faith,  who  rose  up  at  the  first  call 
and  followed,  never  wavering  or  questioning; 
stern,  uncompromising  James,  a  man  of  conduct 
and  morals,  impatient  at  the  faith  that  was  fruitless 
and  the  doctrine  that  was  dead,  and  Thaddeus, 
also  called  "Judas,  not  Iscariot,"  "a  man  of 
definite,  clear,  sharply  cut  convictions,"  eager  for 
definitions,  "  the  man  of  practice  and  the  man  of 
faith;"  Simon  the  Zealot,  who  counted  Christ 
everything,  and  served  Him  with  the  same  self- 
obliterating  zeal  which  had  marked  him  in  the 
days  when  he  belonged  to  the  sect  whose  name 
clung  to  him,  and  Judas,  who  was  a  disciple  for 
selfish  ends,  wary,  calculating,  commercial— the 
man  of  zeal,  and  the  man  of  unenthusiastic 
coldness  (R.  E.  Thompson's  sermon,  The  Send- 
ing of  the  Apostles  Two  by  Tzvo). 

His  skill  was  shown  not  less  clearly  in  His 
training  of  the  Twelve.  As  soon  as  they  were 
able  to  stand  alone.  He  threw  them  on  their  own 
responsibility.  Until  after  His  second  circuit  in 
Galilee  (Luke  viii.  i)  Jesus  kept  the  apostles  with 
Him.  Shortly  after,  however,  He  sent  them  off 
in  the  pairs  He  had  arranged  to  work  by  them- 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         69 

selves  (Matt.  x.  5.     See  at  length  Bnice's  Trains 
i/ig  of  the  Twelve). 


XV.  His  little  perso?ial  ways,  so  humafi,  yet  so 
faultless. 

I.   His  use  of  His  eyes;  His  look. 

Mark's  Gospel,  bearing  on  its  face  the  evi- 
dences of  Simon  Peter's  vivid  recollections  pre- 
served in  it,  speaks  repeatedly  of  Jesus'  use  of 
His  eyes  (Mark  iii.  5,  34 ;  v.  32  ;  viii.  2,3)-  Why 
Peter  remembered  so  well  the  power  of  that  clear, 
discerning  gaze  Luke  suggests  (Luke  xxii.  61). 
When  Peter  impersonated  Satan,  losing  all  savor 
of  God,  that  gaze  was  turned  away  from  him  as 
Jesus  put  him  behind  His  back.  But  on  a  later, 
eventful  night,  as  the  cock  crowed  the  second 
time,  it  was  turned  full  upon  him,  and  pierced 
through  Peter  like  a  white-hot  sword.  Mrs. 
Browning  brings  out  the  power  of  it : 

*'  The  Saviour  looked  on  Peter.     Aye,  no  word, 
No  gesture  of  reproach !     The  heavens  serene, 
Though  heavy  with  armed  justice,  did  not  lean 
Their  thunders  that  way!      The  forsaken  Lord 
Looked  only  on  the  traitor.     None  record 
What  that  look  was ;  none  guess ;  for  those  who  hsve 

seen 
Wronged  lovers  loving  through  a  death-pang  keen. 
Or  pale-cheeked  martyrs  smiling  to  a  sword, 
Have  missed  Jehovah  at  the  judgment  call; 
And  Peter  from  the  height  of  blasphemy — 
*  I  never  knew  this  man  ' — did  quail  and  fall. 
As  knowing  straight  that  God,  and  turned  free 
And  went  out  speechless  from  the  face  of  all, 
And  filled  the  silence,  weeping  bitterly." 

The  eyes  of  an  honest  man  are  even  now  as  the 
judgment  of  God.     What  must  the  gaze  of  the 


70  THE    MAN    CHRIST    JESUS 

eyes  of  the  Son  of  God,  stainless  and  piire,  have 
been? 

2.   His  use  of  His  hands ;  His  touch. 

There  was  a  gracious  power  of  soothing  and 
of  heahng  in  that  touch.  He  took  Peter's  wife's 
mother  by  the  hand,  and  Hfted  her  up  from  her 
bed  of  fever  and  pain  (Mark  i.  31).  The  peo- 
ple knev/  the  magic  of  His  touch,  and  besought 
Him  to  lay  His  hands  upon  the  deaf  (Mark  vii. 
32,  :^T,)  and  to  touch  the  blind  (Mark  viii.  22, 
23) ;  and  He  put  His  fingers  into  the  ears  of  the 
deaf  man,  and  he  heard,  and  He  took  hold  of 
the  Wind  man  by  the  hand,  and  he  saw.  On 
loathsome  lepers,  even,  He  laid  His  holy  hands, 
and  they  were  clean  (Matt.  viii.  1-3).  The  very 
dead  rose  up  from  their  biers  at  His  touch  of  life 
(Luke  vii.  14,  15),  and  souls  came  back  from  the 
gates  of  death  (Mark  ix.  27). 

Mothers  brought  their  little  ones  to  Him,  that 
He  should  lay  His  hands  on  them  and  pray,  but 
He  did  more.  He  even  took  them  in  His  arms 
and  blessed  them,  laying  His  hands  upon  them 
(Matt.  xix.  13,  15;  Mark  x.  16).  What  heart, 
remembering  His  look  and  His  touch,  has  not 
longingly  joined  in  the  child's  hymn : 

**  I  wish  that  His  hands  had  been  laid  on  my  head, 
That  His  arms  had  been  thrown  around  me, 
And  that  I  might  have  seen  His  kind  face  when  He 
said, 
*  Let  the  httle  ones  come  unto  Me. '  " 

At  no  more  suitable  time  can  we  remind  our- 
selves that  Christ  discovered  child  life.  He  made 
it  significant  and  sacred.  He  pointed  out  its 
nearness  to  the  hfe  of  God,  and  found  nothing 
better  as  a  metaphor  of  Himself  and  His  spirit 
than  the  life  of  a  httle  child  (Mark  ix.  36,  37). 


HIS    PLANS    AND    METHODS    OF    WORK         7 1 

Fcr  children  He  had  only  love,  the  gende  touch 
of  His  hand,  and  holy  reverence  and  respect,  see- 
ing in  them  the  true  representatives  of  the  king- 
dom which  is  peace  and  joy.  How  He  felt 
toward  them,  and  what  He  taught  by  them,  the 
dear  Scotch  poem  of  "The  Maister  and  the 
Bairns  "  best  tells : 


**  The  Maister  sat  in  a  wee  cot  house 
Tae  the  Jordan's  watters  near, 
An'  the  fisherfolk  crush'd  an'  croodet  roon 
The  Maister's  words  tae  hear. 


**  An'  even  the  bairns  frae  near-han  streets 
Kept  mixin'  in  wi'  the  thrang, 
Laddies  and  lassies  wi'  wee  bare  feet, 
Jinkin'  the  crood  amang. 

"  An'  ane  o'  the  twal'  at  the  Maister's  side 
Ris  up  an'  cried  alood : 
*  Come,  come,  bairns,  this  is  nae  place  for  yon. 
Rin  awa'  hame  oot  o'  the  crood.' 

**  But  the  Maister  said,  as  they  turned  tae  go, 
'  Lat  the  wee  bairns  coom  tae  Me.' 
An'  He  gaithert  them  roon  Him  whaur  He  sat. 
An'  lifted  ane  up  on  His  knee. 

**  Aye,  He  gaithert  them  roon  Him  whaur  He  satj 
An'  He  straikit  their  curly  hair. 
An'  He  said  to  the  wunnerin'  fisherfolk 
Wha  croodet  aroon  Him  there: 

"  '  Send  na  the  weans  awa'  frae  Me, 
But  raither  this  lesson  learn, 
That  nane'll  win  in  at  heaven's  yett  [gate] 
Wha  is  na  as  puir's  a  bairn.' 

**  An*  He  that  has  taen  us  for  kith  and  kin, 
Tho'  a  Prince  o'  the  far  awa', 
Gaithert  them  roon  Him  whaur  He  sat, 
An'  blisset  them  ane  an'  a'." 


72  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 


XVI.  Tlie  generous  freeness  and  selflessness  of  His 
deeds. 

He  never  minded  personal  lack  (Luke  ix.  58). 
When,  having  no  leisure  so  much  as  to  eat,  He 
was  about  to  withdraw  into  a  desert  place  to 
rest.  He  abandoned  at  once  all  thought  of  rest 
at  the  sight  of  the  multitudes  as  sheep  not  having 
a  shepherd  (Mark  vi.  31-34).  So  thoughtless  of 
His  own  wants  was  He  that  His  friends  regarded 
Him  as  deranged  (Mark  iii.  20,  21).  He  had 
been  at  Jerusalem,  where  He  had  gone  apart 
from  His  brethren,  and  where  He  was  scorned 
by  the  Pharisees  because  of  His  Galilean  origin, 
and  was  regarded  by  some  as  a  demoniac  (John 
vi.  20,  21,  48,  52;  viii.  48,  52).  Knowing  the 
impression  He  had  made  at  Jerusalem,  and  see- 
ing His  conduct  since.  His  friends  concluded  that 
He  was  "  beside  Himself  " ;  they  knew  He  was 
not  possessed  of  an  unclean  spirit,  as  the  scribes 
openly  charged,  but  they  doubted  His  sanity,  and 
came  to  remove  Him  forcibly  (Mark  iii.  22). 
He  quietly  worked  on. 

When  His  aid  was  sought,  He  demanded  faith 
in  the  seeker,  but  often,  with  the  abandonment 
of  a  divine  love,  He  wrought  for  the  reHef  and 
blessing  of  others  (Matt.  xv.  32  ;  John  v.  6). 

He  defined  Himself  as  servant  and  minister 
of  men  (Mark  x.  45  ;  Luke  xxii.  27).  Buddha's 
boast  was,  "  I  am  no  man's  servant." 

He  sought  not  His  own  will  (John  iv.  34 ;  v. 
30;  viii.  29).  He  freely  gave  Himself  in  a  ser- 
vice that  demanded  and  ended  only  with  His 
death.  He  fulfilled  thus  the  end  of  His  hfe,  and 
bore  evidence  of  His  origin  from  God,  the  divir^^ 
unselfishness,  the  royal  Giver. 


SOME  ACTIVE  AND   PASSIVE   TRAITS 
OF   HIS   CHARACTER 


73 


Ill 


SOME   ACTIVE    AND    PASSIVE    TRAITS    OF   HIS 
CHARACTER 

We  can  rightly  appreciate  these  traits  in  Jesus 
only  as  we  measure  our  own  lives  against  them. 
If  He  was  but  a  man,  we  ought,  with  the  devel- 
oped powers  and  capacities,  the  larger  helpful- 
ness of  our  day,  to  be  better  men  than  He.  The 
uniqueness  of  His  perfections  becomes  truly  sig- 
nificant when  contrasted  with  our  common 
wretchedness  of  flaw  and  failure. 

I.  Sincerity, 

*'  He  possessed,"  says  Liddon,  "  that  one  in- 
dispensable qualification  for  any  teacher,  espe- 
cially for  a  teacher  of  religion.  He  believed  in 
what  He  said  without  reserve,  and  He  said  what 
He  beheved  without  regard  to  consequences." 
This  was  the  very  breath  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  (Matt.  vii.  1-5),  and  of  His  constant 
public  utterances  (Luke  xi.  29,  32  ;  xvi.  14,  15; 
XX.  19;  Mark  vii.  1-15  ;  John  viii.  31-59). 

Now  "  it  is  easy  to  denounce  the  errors  of 
those  who  oppose  us ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  be  al- 
ways outspoken  with  those  who  love  us,  or  whose 
services  may  be  of  use  to  us,  and  who  may  be 
alienated  by  our  outspokenness.  Now  Jesus 
Christ  does  not  merely  drag  forth  to  the  hght  of 
day  the  hidden  motives  of  His  powerful  adversa- 
75 


76  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

ries  that  He  may  exhibit  them  with  so  mercilessly- 
implacable  an  accuracy  in  all  their  baseness  and 
pretension.  He  exposes  with  equal  impartiaUty 
the  weakness  or  the  unreality  or  the  self-decep- 
tion of  [His  friends  or]  others  who  desire  to 
espouse  His  cause.  He  solemnly  bids  men  to 
count  the  cost  before  building  the  tower  of  dis- 
cipleship  (Luke  xiv.  25-28).  He  is  on  the  point 
of  being  deserted  by  all,  and  an  apostle  protests 
with  fervid  exaggeration  that  he  is  ready  to  go 
with  Him  to  prison  and  to  death.  But  instead 
of  at  once  welcoming  the  affection  which  dictated 
this  protestation,  He  pauses  to  show  Simon  Peter 
how  little  he  really  knew  of  the  weakness  of  his 
own  heart "  (John  xiii.  37,  38).  He  never  flatters 
nor  disguises  nor  conceals.  He  sincerely  mani- 
fests Himself.  His  words  to  Pilate  fitly  describe 
the  whole  tenor  and  spirit  of  His  life  (John  xviii. 
37).  "  He  simply  and  constantly  sets  forth  the 
truth  in  its  limpid  purity.  Such  was  His  moral 
attitude  throughout.  Sincerity  was  the  main- 
spring of  His  whole  thought  and   action." 

"  When  I  trace  the  unaffected  majesty  which 
runs  through  the  life  of  Jesus,"  declared  Chan- 
ning,  "and  see  Him  never  falhng  below  His 
divine  claims  amidst  poverty  and  scorn  in  His 
last  agony,  I  have  a  feehng  of  the  reahty  of  Hit' 
character  which  I  cannot  express.  I  feel  that  the 
Jewish  carpenter  could  no  more  have  conceived 
and  maintained  this  character  under  motives  of 
imposture  than  an  infant's  arm  could  repeat  the 
deeds  of  Hercules,  or  his  unawakened  intellect 
comprehend  and  rival  the  matchless  works  of 
genius." 

But  is  Jesus  sincere  if  He  is  not  divine?  If 
His  statements  declare  that  He  is  supremely  a,nd 
tjuly  divine,  then  we  must  accept  the  claim,  or 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  77 

pronounce  Him  insincere,  or,  as  His  friends 
charged,  "  beside  Himself,"  demented.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  His  statements  involve  no  such 
claims,  then  He  was  insincere  in  not  correcting 
the  wrong  impression  they  made  upon  those  who 
had  a  right  to  know  the  truth,  and  who  charged 
Him,  **  Thou,  being  a  man,  makest  Thyself  God." 
We  cannot  endure  the  thought  of  His  friends. 
He  was  then  either  divine  or  insincere.  If  we 
believe  in  His  sincerity,  we  must  also  accept  His 
divinity  or  show  where  He  repudiated  the  con- 
struction placed  on  His  words  by  His  hearers,  a 
construction  of  necessity  utterly  abhorrent  to  a 
merely  good  man's  thought.  A  sane  and  sincere 
Christ  would  not  have  been  surpassed  in  honesty 
and  sincerity  by  Barnabas  and  Paul  at  Lystra, 
who  pleaded  with  the  people  not  to  count  them  as 
other  than  men  of  like  passions  with  themselves 
(Acts  xiv.  14-18). 

II.  Simplicity, 

One  who  knew  Thomas  Chalmers  well  wrote 
of  him,  "  In  simphcity  he  was  a  child.  By  sim- 
pHcity  we  do  not  mean  the  simphcity  of  the  head ; 
of  that  he  had  none ;  but  we  refer  to  a  certain 
quality  of  heart  and  of  life  which  gives  a  direct- 
ness to  all  actions,  and  a  certain  beautiful  un- 
consciousness of  self — an  outgoing  of  the  whole 
nature  that  we  see  in  children.  D'Alembert 
speaks  of  it  in  Fenelon  as  a  characteristic  of  him. 
It  is  a  quality  which  renders  the  possessor  dear 
to  others.  Sincerity  may  be  hard,  harsh,  unlov- 
able. Simplicity  is  more  than  sincerity.  It 
affects  neither  virtue  nor  truth.  It  is  never 
occupied  with  itself.  It  seems  to  have  lost  this 
ego  of  which  one  is  so  jealous."    Fenelon's  own 


^8  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

definition  of  simplicity  was  "that  grace  which 
frees  the  soul  from  all  unnecessary  reflections 
upon  itself."  Now  it  was  the  wonder  of  Christ's 
simplicity  that  it  was  a  selfless  self-assertion.  His 
mission  here  was  to  reveal  God  through  Himself, 
to  assert  Himself ;  and  yet  He  did  this  selflessly, 
simply,  declaring  His  divinity,  but  with  divine 
simphcity  and  humihty  and  self-suppression.  He 
disavowed  all  credit  for  His  deeds  (John  v.  19, 
30;  viii.  28),  His  speech  (John  vii.  17,  18;  xii. 
49  ;  xiv.  10),  His  mission  (John  vii.  28  ;  viii.  42). 

His  doctrine  was  not  less  marked  by  simphcity. 
The  lowest  liked  to  hear  His  direct  and  refresh- 
ing words  (Luke  xv.  i).  He  denounced  hypoc- 
risy in  such  a  way  as  to  lead  men  to  be  sure  that 
He  would  be  straightforward  and  candid  and 
simple  (Luke  vi.  41,  42).  He  made  His  rehgion 
a  child's  religion  in  its  simplicity  of  spirit,  and  did 
it  with  the  simplicity  of  a  child  (Luke  x.  2 1 ;  ix. 
47,  48).  He  made  it  plain  that  He  did  not  re- 
gard the  behef  He  invited  as  a  thing  possible  only 
to  the  keen-minded,  the  intellectually  trained,  a 
reasoned  assent  to  a  formal  statement  of  His 
work  and  person,  useful  as  such  statements 
might  be.  The  faith  He  asked  was  a  loving 
trust  in  Himself  (Luke  x.  41,  42). 

"  Jesus,  with  no  elaboration  or  careful  logical 
development  or  conception  of  abstractions,  told 
people  directly  in  a  manner  level  to  their  under- 
standings what  they  wanted,  what  they  must  do 
and  be,  to  inherit  eternal  hfe,  and  their  inmost 
convictions  answered  to  His  words.  His  doc- 
trine was  not  so  much  a  doctrine  as  a  biography, 
a  personal  power,  a  truth  all  motivity,  a  love 
walking  the  earth  in  the  proximity  of  a  mortal 
fellowship.  He  spoke  what  went  forth  as  a  feel- 
ing and  as  a  power  in  His  life,  breathing  into  all 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  79 

hearts.  To  be  capable  of  His  doctrine  only  re- 
(luired  that  the  hearer  be  a  human  creature  want- 
ing  to  know  the  truth  "  (Bushnell,  T/ie  Character  of 
Jesus,  p.  54). 

Simplicity,  however,  was  more  than  a  charac- 
teristic of  His  doctrine.  It  was  an  atmosphere 
and  spirit  of  His  life.  He  put  His  great  truths 
with  great  simplicity  (John  iii.  i6  ;  v.  30  ;  vi.  29  ; 
viii.  47  ;  xiv.  2  ;  xvii.  3)  because  His  truth  was 
Himself.  His  personal  simplicity  accordingly 
expressed  itself  in  all  His  teaching  (John  xiv.  6  ; 
viii.  T^%).  In  Him  was  no  darkness  or  obscurity 
a.t  all. 

But  was  Jesus  simple  if  He  was  not  divine? 
Did  He  not  show  the  most  cunning  and  unscru- 
pulous dupHcity,  whether  with  the  guilt  of  con- 
s<:ious  deception  or  the  innocence  of  irresponsible 
dementia,  if  He  was  not  divine?  If  it  is  alleged 
tliat,  instead  of  these  repulsive  conclusions,  the 
records  are  untrustworthy,  then  the  foundations 
of  all  human  testimony  are  undermined. 

III.  Humility. 

"  I  believe,"  says  Mr.  Ruskin,  in  Moderfi  Paint- 
ers, ''the  first  test  of  a  truly  great  man  is  his 
humihty.  I  do  not  mean  by  humility  doubt  of 
his  own  power,  or  hesitation  of  speaking  his  opin- 
ions; but  a  right  understanding  of  the  relation 
between  what  he  can  do  and  say,  and  the  rest  of 
the  world's  doings  and  sayings.  All  great  men 
not  only  know  their  business,  but  usually  know 
that  they  know  it,  and  are  not  only  right  in  their 
main  opinions,  but  they  usually  know  that  they 
are  right  in  them,  only  they  do  not  think  much 
of  themselves  on  that  account.  Arnolfo  knows 
that  he  can  build  a  good  dome  at  Florence ;  Al- 


8o  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

bert  Diirer  writes  calmly  to  one  who  has  found 
fault  with  his  work,  '  It  cannot  be  done  better;  * 
Sir  Isaac  Newton  knows  that  he  has  worked  out 
a  problem  or  two  that  would  have  puzzled  any- 
body else ;  only  they  do  not  expect  their  fellow- 
men  therefore  to  fall  down  and  worship  them. 
They  have  a  curious  undersense  of  powerless- 
ness,  feeling  that  the  power  is  not  in  them,  but 
through  them,  that  they  could  not  do  or  be  any- 
thing else  than  God  made  them,  and  they  see 
something  divine  and  God-made  in  every  other 
man  they  meet,  and  are  endlessly,  foolishly,  in- 
credibly merciful." 

A  humihty  even  deeper  than  this— deeper  be- 
cause of  the  height  from  which  He  had  to  stoop, 
and  the  claims  which  it  was  necessary  for  Hini 
to  advance  and  maintain,  and  which  He  put 
forth  not  only  without  destroying,  but  even  t  > 
the  deepening  of  His  self-abasement — marked 
Jesus  Christ.  He  was  one,  as  the  writer  of  Ecce 
Homo  truly  describes  Him,  "  naturally  contented 
with  obscurity,  wanting  the  restless  desire  for  dis- 
tinction and  eminence  which  is  common  in  great 
men,  hating  to  put  forward  personal  claims,  dis- 
liking competition  and  '  disputes  who  should  be 
greatest,'  finding  something  bombastic  in  the  titles 
of  royalty,  fond  of  what  is  simple  and  homely, 
of  children,  of  poor  people,  occupying  Himself 
so  much  with  the  concerns  of  others,  with  the 
rehef  of  sickness  and  want,  that  the  temptation 
to  exaggerate  the  importance  of  His  own  thoughts 
and  plans  was  not  likely  to  master  Him ;  lastly, 
entertaining  for  the  human  race  a  feeling  so  sin- 
gularly fraternal  that  He  was  hkely  to  reject  as  a 
sort  of  treason  the  impulse  to  set  Himself  in  any 
manner  above  them.  Christ,  it  appears,  was  this 
humble  man." 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTKl^  Sj 

"  He  was  anxious  that  His  miracles  should  not 
add  to  His  reputation  (Luke  viii.  51).  Again 
and  again  He  enjoined  silence  on  those  who 
were  the  subjects  of  His  miraculous  cures  (Matt, 
ix.  30;  xii.  15,  16;  Mark  i.  43,  44).  He  would 
not  gratify  persons  whose  motive  in  seeking  His 
company  was  a  vain  desire  to  satisfy  curiosity  in 
seeing  proofs  of  His  power"  (Mark  viii.  1 1,  1 2,  or 
as  more  vigorously  related  in  Matthew  xvi.  1-4). 
Pride  or  self-sufficiency — anything  but  humihty 
— would  have  dictated  a  different  answer.  Re- 
peatedly the  people  demanded  evidence  which 
He  could  have  given,  but  which  He  did  not,  pre- 
ferring the  loving  personal  confidence  of  the  few 
to  the  noisy  political  adhesion  of  the  many  (John 
vi.  30-36). 

So  true  was  His  humihty  that  His  assertion  of 
it  seems  itself  humihty  (Matt.  xi.  29  ;  xx.  26-28  ; 
Luke  xxii.  27),  but  this  was  because  the  verbal 
assertion  was  so  far  surpassed  by  the  testimony 
of  the  life.  The  scene  described  in  John  xiii. 
1-20  was  characteristic  of  His  whole  private  and 
public  ministry.  The  apostles  had  quarreled  as 
to  which  should  be  first.  Going  into  the  room 
where  the  supper  had  been  prepared,  no  one  was 
wiUing  to  abandon  the  claim  to  precedence  by 
performing  for  the  others  the  menial  act  of  hos- 
pitality and  service,  the  washing  of  their  feet. 
When  Jesus  came  in,  He  found  them  seated  in 
sulky  silence,  each  unwilHng  to  acknowledge  him- 
self the  servant  of  all,  all  feigning  unconscious- 
ness of  the  neglected  duty.  With  no  word,  but 
a  sad  heart,  Jesus,  having  loved  His  own,  arose 
from  supper  and  laid  aside  His  garments  and 
Himself  bathed  the  disciples'  feet,  wiping  them 
with  the  towel  wherewith  He  was  girded,  show- 
ing them  the  presence  in  their  Lord  of  a  humility 


82  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

the  servants  lacked  (Dods,  The  Gospel  of  St. 
John^  vol.  ii.,  ch.  vi.,  Expositor's  Bible).    . 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Matthew  was  impressed 
with  the  fulfilment  in  Christ's  life  of  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah  xhi.  1-4  (Matt.  xii.  17-20).  Nor  is  it 
to  be  wondered  at  that  the  Father  loved  this  Son 
whose  humility  expressed  itself  in  such  perfect 
obedience  (John  vii.  16  ;  viii.  26).  Nor  is  there 
any  shorter  road  for  us  into  His  presence  and 
favor. 

'*  Weuldst  thou  the  holy  hill  ascend 

And  see  the  Father's  face? 
To  all  His  children  lowly  bend 

And  seek  the  lowest  place. 
Thus  humbly  doing  on  the  earth 

What  things  the  earthly  scorn, 
Thou  shalt  assert  the  lofty  birth 

Of  all  the  lowly  born." 

But  was  Jesus  humble  if  He  was  not  divine? 
Can  He  be  a  man,  and  as  a  King  bid  us  to  be- 
lieve in  Him,  live  by  Him  and  for  Him,  die  for 
Him,  and  yet  be  humble?  "If  He  is  God  as 
well  as  man,  His  language  falls  into  place  and 
becomes  intelligible ;  but  if  you  deny  His  divin- 
ity, you  must  conclude  that  some  of  the  most 
precious  sayings  in  the  gospel  are  but  the  out- 
break of  a  preposterous  self-laudation  ;  they  might 
well  seem  to  breathe  the  very  spirit  of  another  Lu- 
cifer" (Liddon,  The  Divinity  of  Our  Lord ^  p.  199). 

IV.  His  imselfishfiess  and perso7ial  dignity. 

For  the  dignity  of  selfishness  or  self-importance 
He  had  no  thought.  He  cared  nothing  for  Him- 
self, spared  Himself  not  at  all.  He  loved  His 
enemies,  and  sought  to  serve  them  (Luke  vi.  3 1- 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  83 

35).  The  words  in  which  He  urged  such  conduct 
upon  His  disciples,  however,  and  the  hfe  in  which 
lie  exemphfied  it,  were  ahke  marked  by  a  lofty- 
dignity  not  always  accompanying  the  attempt  at 
self-denial.  This  combination  of  unselfishness 
and  personal  dignity  is  seen : 

1.  In  His  own  assertions.  He  did  not  His 
own  will,  but  He  did  the  will  of  a  King  (John 
vi.  38).  He  sought  not  His  own  pleasure,  but  it 
pleased  the  eternal  God  to  walk  with  Him  as  a 
friend  and  companion  (John  viii.  29).  He  sought 
not  His  own  glory,  but  God  made  His  life  a  per- 
fect and  glorious  revelation  of  His  own  beauty 
(John  viii.  50). 

2.  In  His  surrender  of  home  and  friends  to 
])ecome.a  wanderer  (Luke  ix.  58). 

**  Foxes  had  their  rest  and  the  birds  their  nest 
In  the  deserts  of  Galilee ; 
Thy  couch  was  the  sod,  O  Thou  Son  of  God, 
In  the  deserts  of  Galilee." 

He  was  very  poor.  When  He  died,  Ite  seems 
to  have  had  but  the  one  suit  of  clothes.  He 
borrowed  money  to  use  for  an  illustration  (Matt, 
xxii.  19;  Mark  xii.  15),  and  had  none  for  the 
payment  of  taxes  for  Himself  and  Peter  (Matt, 
xvii.  24-27).  He  was  fed  by  a  loving  company 
of  followers  (Luke  viii.  2,  3).  "What  a  Messiah 
to  the  eyes  of  the  flesh  was  this  One,  who  lived 
on  the  bounty  of  men!  But  what  a  Messiah  to 
the  eyes  of  the  spirit  was  this  Son  of  God,  living 
by  the  love  of  those  whom  His  love  had  made 
to  live!"  (Godet).  Yet,  though  poor,  He  never 
begged— save  to  ask  a  Samaritan  woman  for  a 
drink  of  water  (John  iv.  7).  He  rather  gave  like 
a  king  (Mark  viii.  2-8). 

3.  In  His  love  of  loneliness  (Matt.  xiv.  23,  24 ; 


84  THE    MAN    CHRIST    JESUS 

Mark  i.  35-38).  Small  and  selfish  souls  seldom 
like  to  be  alone  with  nature.  She  rebukes  them. 
Her  magnificent  breath  of  abandon,  beneficence, 
and  dignity  appals  them. 

4.  In  His  avoidance  of  demonstration,  noise, 
popularity,  the  shouts  and  partizanship  of  the 
mob.  He  enjoined  silence  upon  a  leper  He  had 
healed  (Luke  v.  14-16).  He  concealed  His  iden- 
tity from  the  man  who  had  lain  by  the  Bethesda 
pool  (John  V.  13).  He  desired  the  story  of  the 
transfiguration  kept  secret  (Luke  ix.  36  ;  Mark 
ix.  9).  He  took  His  disciples  into  the  desert  to 
escape  the  crowds  (Mark  vi.  32).  A  deaf  man 
with  an  impediment  in  his  speech  He  cured,  and 
bade  him  to  tell  no  man  (Mark  vii.  36,  37). 

5.  In  His  freedom  from  fear.  His  enemies 
never  terrorized  Him  (Luke  iv.  19,  20).  Selfish 
men  are  cowards. 

6.  In  His  superiority  to  political  manipulation 
of  the  populace.  He  never  availed  Himself  of 
the  advocacy  of  the  mob.  Paul  was  willing  to 
play  upon  the  factional  dissensions  between  Phar- 
isees and  Sadducees  (Acts  xxii.  i,  6).  Jesus  was 
not  willing  to  set  class  against  class  (Luke  xx.  19  ; 
xxii.  2  ;  Mark  xiv.  i,  2).  He  might  have  roused 
a  whirlwind  of  passion  among  the  women  follow- 
ing His  cross  (Luke  xxiii.  27). 

7.  In  His  self-restraint.  He  never  lost  con- 
trol of  Himself,  either  through  a  wrong  self-for- 
getfulness  or  a  wrong  self-assertion.  There  was 
always  a  reserve.  What  He  was  not  and  did  not 
do  were  almost  as  wonderful  as  what  He  was  and 
did  (Lukeix.  51-56;  Matt.  iv.  i-ii). 


He  might  have  reared  a  palace  at  a  word 
Who  sometimes  had  not  where  to  lay  His  head. 
Time  was  when  He  who  nourished  crowds  with  bread 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  85 

Would  not  one  meal  unto  Himself  afiford. 

He  healed  another's  scratch  ;  His  own  side  bled, 

Side,  feet,  and  hands  with  cruel  piercings  gored. 

Twelve  legions  girded  with  angelic  sword 
Stood  at  His  beck,  the  scorned  and  buffeted. 
Oh,  wonderful  the  wonders  left  undone. 

And  scarce  less  wonderful  than  those  He  wrought! 

Oh,  self-restraint,  surpassing  human  thought, 
To  have  all  power,  yet  be  as  having  none ! 
Oh,  self-denying  love  that  thought  alone 
For  needs  of  others,  never  for  its  own!" 

8.  In  His  constant  readiness  to  sacrifice  Him- 
self and  His  own  needs  for  others  (John  iv.  6,  7, 
31-34;  Rom.  XV.  3). 

It  is  not  easy  for  one  to  combine  the  humihty 
of  self-effacement  with  large  personal  power  and 
great  personal  dignity.  We  are  dignified,  and 
we  become  cold,  formal,  self -esteemed.  We  are 
anxious  to  serve  others  wholly,  and  we  become 
officious  and  supernumerary.  But  Christ  com- 
bined them  always,  just  as,  in  His  greatest  act 
of  humihation  and  service,  when  He  washed  His 
disciples'  feet,  He  never  lost  for  one  moment 
anything  of  the  majesty  or  consciousness  of  His 
divine  dignity  (Edersheim,  The  Life  ajid  Times  of 
Jesus  the  Messiah^  vol.  ii.,  p.  398). 

The  Lord  God  had  laid  the  sword  of  the 
knighthood  of  the  divine  dignity  on  the  unselfish 
shoulder  of  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  and  the  glory  of 
that  investiture  never  departed  from  Him.  "  It 
is  the  same  King's  Son,"  says  Van  Oosterzee, 
**  who  to-day  dwells  in  the  palace  of  His  Father, 
and  to-morrow,  out  of  love  to  rebellious  subjects 
in  a  remote  corner  of  the  kingdom,  renouncing 
His  princely  glory,  comes  to  dwell  among  them 
in  the  form  of  a  servant,  limiting  of  His  own  free 
will  the  prerogative  of  His  original  rank,  which 
He  has  never  laid  aside,  and  is  known  only  by 


86  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

the  dignity  of  the  look  and  the  star  of  royalty 
on  His  breast,  when  the  mean  cloak  is  opened  for 
a  moment,  apparently  by  accident." 

Or,  in  the  fine  words  of  Warfield,  in  The  Ex- 
ample of  the  Incarnation  J  "  We  see  Him  among 
the  thousands  of  Galilee,  anointed  of  God  with 
the  Holy  Ghost  and  power,  going  about  doing 
good,  with  no  pride  of  birth,  though  He  was  a 
king;  with  no  pride  of  intellect,  though  omnis- 
cience dwelt  within  Him ;  with  no  pride  of  power, 
though  all  power  in  heaven  and  earth  was  in  His 
hands ;  or  of  station,  though  the  fullness  of  the 
Godhead  abode  in  Him  bodily;  or  of  superior 
goodness  or  holiness;  but  in  lowliness  of  mind 
esteeming  every  other  one  better  than  Himself, 
heahng  the  sick,  casting  out  devils,  feeding  the 
hungry,  and  everywhere  breaking  to  men  the 
bread  of  life.  We  see  Him  everywhere  offering 
to  men  His  hfe  for  the  salvation  of  their  souls ; 
and  when  at  last  the  forces  of  evil  gathered  thick 
around  Him,  walking  alike  without  display  or 
dismay  the  path  of  suffering  appointed  for  Him, 
and  giving  His  life  at  Calvary  that  through  His 
death  the  world  might  live." 

Now  it  was  believed  in  Jesus'  day,  as  Young 
remarks  {The  Christ  of  History,  p.  72),  and  "it  is 
still  very  widely  believed,  that  high  self-estima- 
tion is  essential  to  dignity  of  character."  But  of 
a  character  of  greater  dignity  than  Jesus  there  is 
no  record  in  history,  and  yet  He  was  only  a 
young  man  at  the  time  of  His  death.  In  a  coun- 
try and  among  a  people  where  age  had  always 
been  regarded  with  peculiar  veneration  and  re- 
spect, and  young  men  had  been  taught  to  be  in 
subjection  to  the  elders,  and  totally  surrendering 
any  of  the  dignity  which  comes  from  pompous 
and  vain  self-estimation  and  assertion,  Jesus  was 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  Sj 

Still  regarded  with  profound  respect,  though  His 
life  was  one  long  act  of  humble  and  unselfish 
service. 

V.  Ifis  love  and  generosity  toward  those  who  were 
alien  or  hostile  to  Him. 

1.  This  is  shown  in  His  attitude  toward  the 
Samaritans,  between  whom  and  His  nation  there 
were  no  dealings  (John  iv.  9).  This  hostility  was 
bitter  and  ancient.  It  was  bitter.  Among  the 
later  rules  of  the  Jews  it  was  declared,  "  To  eat 
the  bread  of  a  Samaritan  is  as  eating  swine's 
flesh."  It  was  ancient,  traceable  to  the  Assyrian 
colonization  of  the  land  (2  Kings  xvii.  24),  and 
the  consequent  antagonism  of  the  colonists  to  the 
Jews  at  the  time  of  the  return  (Ezra  iv. ;  Neh. 
vi.),  which  led  to  the  erection  on  Mount  Gerizim 
of  the  rival  temple.  The  hostility  endures  to 
this  day.  Yet  all  Christ's  conduct  toward  Sa- 
maritans was  marked  by  especial  kindness  (Luke 
ix.  51-56;  xvii.  12-19).  He  chose  a  Samaritan 
to  typify  the  spirit  of  Christian  charity,  and  made 
the  name  a  title  of  honor  forever  (Luke  x.  25- 
37).  This  kindhness  of  treatment  was  the  more 
remarkable  because  of  the  hateful  taunt,  "  Thou 
art  a  Samaritan"  (John  viii.  48).  The  Jews  re- 
garded Him  as  a  Samaritan,  a  traducer  of  their 
traditions,  an  enemy  of  the  national  hopes  and 
ideals,  a  mad,  uncontrolled,  wilful  enthusiast. 
He  paid  no  attention  to  this  charge.  He  would 
not  even  recognize  the  slur  upon  another  people. 
A  man's  defense,  the  human  reply,  would  have 
been  to  surpass  the  Jews  in  denunciation  of  the 
Samaritans.  This  was  the  way  Peter  acted  (Matt, 
xxvi.  69-74). 

2.  His  love  for  His  enemies  is  shown  also  in 


88  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

His  conduct  in  the  hours  that  tried  His  soul. 
He  healed  the  man  whom  His  disciple  had 
mutilated  (Luke  xxii.  50,  51).  He  forgave  those 
who  slew  Him  (Luke  xxiii.  34).  Such  conduct 
He  enjoined  on  His  disciples  (Matt.  v.  43-45  ; 
xviii.  22  ;  Matt.  v.  24,  46,  47).  And  they  learned 
:he  lesson  He  had  taught  in  word  and  deed  (Acts 
vii.  6  o ) .  U hlhorn  ( The  Conflict  of  Christianity  with 
JIeathe?iism,  p.  209)  gives  later  instances:  "A 
Palestinian  Christian  named  Paulus  prayed,  be- 
fore he  received  the  death-stroke,  that  God  would 
lead  all  the  heathen  to  faith  and  salvation ;  and 
he  forgave  the  judge  who  had  condemned  him, 
and  the  executioner  who  carried  the  sentence  into 
effect.  Pionius,  a  martyr  in  Samaria,  was  heard 
supplicating,  from  the  flames  of  the  pyre,  for  the 
emperor,  for  his  judges,  and  for  all  the  heathen. 
When  an  audible  amen  was  on  his  lips,  the  flames 
smote  together  above  him,  and  ended  his  life." 

Yet  Jesus  was  perfectly  free  in  offending  peo- 
ple when  His  mission,  if  He  would  faithfully 
fulfil  it,  made  it  necessary  for  Him  to  do  so. 
He  dauntlessly  assailed  traditional  and  paralyz- 
ing formahsm  (Luke  vi.  6-1 1).  He  affronted 
the  moral  prejudice  which  blinds  men  to  the  right 
choice  of  logical  alternatives  (Luke  v.  21-24). 
He  made  a  terse  and  unconciliatory  reply  to  th** 
miracle-hunger  of  the  day  (Luke  xi.  29).  He 
pronounced  a  fearful  impeachment  of  the  reli- 
gious leaders  of  the  time  (Matt,  xxiii.),  and  in  His 
contro^'ersy  with  them  at  the  Feast  of  Taber- 
nacles He  denounced  them  as  the  devil's  chil- 
dren, as  the  sons  of  him  who  from  the  beginning 
was  a  murderer  and  the  father  of  all  lies  (John 
viii.  43, 44).  Jesus  could  not  avoid  giving  offense 
in  this  way.  The  final  conflict  between  Him  and 
the  adversary  was  and  is  a  conflict  between  truth 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  69 

and  falsehood.  Now  Jesus  hated  falsehood,  all 
lies,  absolutely  all— even  "justifiable  hes" — with 
an  utter  hatred.  It  will  be  found,  accordingly, 
that  for  Him  to  have  been  silent  on  these  occa- 
sions, when  His  plain  speech  seems  almost  harsh 
and  bitter — as  it  indeed  was  against  falsehood 
— would  have  been  to  incur  the  suspicion  of  com- 
promise with,  or  connivance  at,  the  lies  He  so 
fiercely  denounced.  Consistency,  honor,  truth, 
obliged  Jesus  to  do  and  say  things  which  un- 
avoidably created  offense.  Truth  and  right  met 
falsehood  and  wrong.  Between  these  there  is 
eternal  war.  Over  the  tumult  of  the  war,  how- 
ever, those  who  "  had  ears  "  could  always  hear 
"  His  sweet  voice  calling." 

VI.   Tenderness. 

What  is  it?  Miss  Mulock,  in  John  Halifax^ 
Gentleman,  speaks  of  it  as  *'  that  rare  thing,  ten- 
derness— a  quality  different  from  kindHness, 
affectionateness,  or  benevolence  ;  a  quahty  which 
can  exist  only  in  strong,  deep,  undemonstrative 
natures,  and  therefore  in  its  perfection  seldomer 
found  in  women  than  in  men."  But  this  does 
not  define  it.  If  it  were  not  hard  to  define 
it  would  not  be  so  prominent  a  trait  in  the  char- 
acter of  Jesus,  this  tenderness,  the  bending  of 
a  high  mind  and  great  strength  to  sympathy  with 
small  things,  weak  things,  and  the  adaptation  to 
helpfulness  in  love.  But  we  know  it,  and  we 
love  it. 


We  long  for  tenderness  like  that  which  hung 
About  us  lying  on  our  mother's  breast  ; 

A  selfless  feeling  which  no  pen  or  tongue 
Can  praise  aright,  since  silence  sings  it  best : 


^O  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

A  love  as  far  removed  from  passion's  heat 

As  from  the  chillness  of  its  dying  fire ; 
A  love  to  lean  on  when  the  failing  feet 

Begin  to  totter  and  the  eyes  to  tire. 
In  youth's  brief  heyday  hottest  love  we  seek, 

The  reddest  rose  we  grasp ;  but  when  it  dies, 
God  grant  that  later  blossoms,  violets  meek, 

May  spring  for  us  beneath  life's  autumn  skies ; 
God  grant  some  loving  one  be  near  to  bless 

Our  weary  way  with  simple  tenderness." 

Tenderaess  is  an  expression  of  love,  and  is 
sweetest  and  most  evident  in  love  in  the  act  of 
forgiving.  And  so  one  of  the  finest  expressions 
of  tenderness  in  Christ's  life  is  found  in  the 
scene  where  he  lays  emphasis  on  love  as  the 
spring  of  outward  service,  and  by  an  act  of  for- 
giveness makes  plain  that  man's  love  to  God  is 
proportionate  to  the  sense  he  has  of  God's  love 
in  forgiveness  (Luke  vii.  47-50).  His  life  was 
wholly  a  life  of  tenderness.     We  see  it : 

1.  In  His  quick  thought  for  others  (Luke  viii. 
49,  50).  As  the  ruler  of  the  synagogue  was  on 
the  point  of  asking  help  for  his  daughter,  his 
servants  brought  him  word  of  the  futility  of  any 
such  request:  his  daughter  was  already  dead. 
Jesus,  having  overheard,  forestalled  the  man's 
doubt  by  saying  at  once,  "  Fear  not.  Let  not 
these  tidings  disturb  you.  She  shall  be  saved" 
(Mark  v.  35,  36). 

2.  In  His  love  for  little  children  (Luke  xviii. 
15-17  ;  Mark  x.  16).  An  old  blind  preacher  in 
a  meeting  for  httle  children  began  his  prayer  at 
the  opening  of  the  meeting,  "  Compassionate 
Jesus,  who,  when  Thou  wast  down  here,  didst  say 
so  many  sweet  things  to  little  children  and  of 
little  children,  bless  in  Thy  loving  way  these  Thy 
loved  little  ones."  Jairus  may  have  known  of 
His  love  for  little  ones  (Mark  v.  23).     Human 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  91 

teachers  had  overlooked  the  child.  Heathenism 
had  no  place  in  its  thought  or  care  for  child  life. 
Stobaeus  said,  "The  poor  man  raises  his  sons, 
but  the  daughters,  even  if  one  is  poor,  we  ex- 
pose." Jairus  appeals  fearlessly  for  "my  little 
daughter."  Quintilian  said,  "  To  kill  a  man  is 
often  held  to  be  a  crime,  but  to  kill  one's  own 
children  is  sometimes  considered  a  beautiful 
action  among  the  Romans."  "  Pliny  speaks  coolly 
of  those  who  hunt  for  the  brains  and  marrow 
of  infants,  probably  for  superstitious  or  medicinal 
purposes."  The  famous  apothegm  in  Terence's 
"  Heauton-timoroumenos,"  "  Homo  sum  ;  hu- 
mani  nihil  a  me  ahenum  puto,"  was  uttered 
by  a  father  who  rebuked  the  mother  for  sparing 
her  child  instead  of  destroying  it  when  bom. 
Christ  gave  the  child  a  place  in  the  thought  of 
men,  secured  the  recognition  of  the  sanctity  of 
its  hfe,  and  brought  it  blessing  by  being  Himself 
a  child.     (Brace,  Gesia  Christi,  ch.  vii.) 

**  Yet  sure  the  babe  is  in  the  cradle  blest, 

Since  God  Himself  a  baby  deigned  to  be, 
And  slept  upon  a  mortal  mother's  breast, 
And  steeped  in  baby  tears  His  deity." 

We  have  not  altogether  learned  Christ's  lesson. 
Mrs.  Browning's  "  Cry  of  the  Children  "  is  but 
one  of  many  reminders  of  this.  Our  own  cities 
are  full  of  them.  In  New  York,  during  one 
week  in  June,  1893,  there  were  792  deaths — 
only  82  in  private  houses,  nearly  500  in  the  close 
tenement  districts.  Over  two  thirds  were  little 
children,  181  under  one  year  of  age,  316  under 
five  years  of  age.  Eighty-two  of  these  children 
died  of  pneumonia ;  two  died  statedly  of  starva- 
tion, but  bad  and  insufficient  food  helped  the  rest. 

3.  In  His  kindly  attitude  toward  the  Samaritans. 


92  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

On  every  occasion  He  showed  utmost  tenderness 
loward  them  (John  iv. ;  Luke  ix.  51-56 ;  x.  25- 

37)- 

4.  In  His  sympathy  with  widows.  The  pe- 
cuhar  sadness  of  the  widow's  position  touched 
Him.  His  mother  was  probably  a  widow  dur- 
ing His  active  ministry.  For  one  of  them  He 
wrought  a  mighty  miracle  unsolicited  (Luke  vii. 
11-15).  His  deed  on  this  occasion  was  not 
done  primarily  to  exhibit  His  divine  power  or 
to  attest  His  mission.  It  was  the  overflow  of 
His  tender  sympathy.  Even  in  anticipation  of 
His  work  of  mercy,  He  comforted  the  widow  by 
a  word  of  hope.  In  His  parables,  He  used  a 
widow  as  illustration  of  the  importunity  of  prayer 
(Luke  xviii.  1-7),  and  a  poor  widow  supplied 
Him  with  the  noblest  example  of  Hberality  (Luke 
xxi.  1-4). 

5.  In  His  sympathy  with  the  lonely.  Jairus, 
the  man  who  met  Him  after  the  transfiguration, 
and  the  widow  of  Nain  were  able  to  appeal 
specially  to  His  love  and  helpfulness,  because  in 
each  case  an  only  child  was  involved,  whose  loss 
meant  an  empty  and  desolate  home  (Luke  viii. 
41,  42;  ix.  38;  vii.  11-15).  He  M^as  alone  in 
the  world,  yet  not  alone,  and  He  loved  to  save 
others  from  loneliness. 

6.  In  His  care  for  the  poor.  There  was  a 
strange  and  true  pathos  in  the  undeserved  title 
of  Coxey's  famous  army,  "The  Army  of  the 
Commonweal  of  Christ."  Christ's  blessing  was 
on  the  poor  (Luke  vi.  20).  He  belonged  to  the 
commonwealth  of  the  lowly.  He  was  moved 
with  compassion  for  the  poverty-stricken  throngs 
(Matt.  ix.  36  ;  Mark  viii.  1-3).  Men  of  influence 
who  came  to  Him,  He  strove  to  set  at  work  for 
the  poor  (Luke  xviii.  22).     Other  religions  have 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  93 

glorified  the  pride  of  poverty  to  its  embitterment 
and  harm,  or  to  the  destruction  of  manhness  and 
industry.  But  the  Christianity  of  Christ,  since 
it  came  and  wherever  it  has  been,  has  Hfted  and 
blessed  the  honest  poverty  of  men,  to  the  sweeten- 
ing of  life  and  the  strengthening  of  honor  and 
homes.  True  notions  of  values  in  this  matter  on 
one  hand,  and  charity  and  humanitarianism  on 
the  other,  have  sprung  from  the  gospel.  The 
poor  had  been  scorned  and  neglected  before. 
Christ  made  a  place  for  them.  Celsus  found 
fault  with  Christianity  on  this  ground.  **  Let  us 
hear,"  he  says,  *'  what  kind  of  persons  these 
Christians  invite.  Every  one,  they  say,  who  is 
a  sinner,  who  is  devoid  of  understanding,  who 
is  a  child,  him  will  the  kingdom  of  God  receive." 
I*lato  had  deemed  it  right  to  despise  the  poor 
and  laboring  classes.  Jesus  identified  Himself 
with  these  classes  (Matt.  xxv.  44,  45).  He 
makes  conduct  toward  them  the  standard  of  judg- 
ment at  the  last.  Rich  and  poor  He  declared 
to  stand  ahke  on  an  equality  before  God.  Rich 
soul  and  pauper's  soul  go  to  the  same  God.  The 
same  God  waits  to  greet  both.  The  rich  can 
claim  no  advantage. 

**  Stranger,  however  great, 

With  lowly  reverence  bow : 
There's  one  in  that  poor  shed, 
One  by  that  paltry  bed, 
Greater  than  thou." 

7.  In  His  passion  for  healing  the  sick  and  the 
wretched.  The  people  brought  great  throngs  to 
Him,  and  He  healed  them  (Mark  i.  32-34) ;  but, 
not  content  with  this,  He  went  about  in  all  Gali- 
lee, healing  all  (Matt.  iv.  23).  Later  He  made 
another  four  through  cii.'.s  and  villages  seeking 


94  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

for  the  sick  and  diseased,  and  compassionately 
healing  all  (Matt.  ix.  35).  He  gladly  abandoned 
the  search  for  rest  and  quiet  when  He  had  op- 
portunity for  healing  (Matt.  xiv.  13,  14).  Nor 
did  He  always  wait  to  be  entreated  (John  v.  6 ; 
ix.  1-7).  Happy  were  the  days  when  a  loving 
voice  fell  upon  sore  hearts,  asked : 

**Art  thou  weary,  art  thou  languid  ? 
Art  thou  sore  distressed  ?  " 

and  added : 

*'  Come  to  Me,  and  coming  be  at  rest." 

8.  In  His  remembrance  of  His  mother  in  His 
last  agony  (John  xix.  26) ;  in  His  faithful  love  of 
those  whom  He  could  help  (Mark  x.  21  ;  John 
xi.  5) ;  in  His  heartbroken  cry  over  Jerusalem 
(Matt,  xxiii.  37) ;  in  His  teaching  of  the  Twelve 
(Matt.  XX.  24-26) ;  in  His  last  words  with  them 
(John  xiii.  33-35  ;  xiv.  1-3 ;  xv.  20,  21 ;  xvi.  5- 
7);  in  His  relations  with  John  and  Peter  (John 
xiii.  23 ;  Mark  xvi.  7). 

He  was  the  true  ideal  of  chivalry,  "  free,  meek., 
and  gentle  as  a  lamb "  (John  i.  29).  In  His 
loveliness  of  perfect  deeds  He  showed  Himself 
to  be  the  infinite  tenderness  of  God,  and  so 
showed  the  Father  whom  He  came  to  reveal 
(John  xvii.  4,  8,  25)  to  be  the  God  cf  tender- 
ness infinite. 

VII.   The  perfect  cahn  and  evenness  of  His  life, 

"The  impression  made  on  us  by  the  appear- 
ance of  Christ  is  that  of  perfect  repose,  calm 
self-possession,  serene  self-reliance.  Yet  it  was 
a  repose  consistent  with  a  rich,  deep,  inexhausti- 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  95 

ble  enthusiasm.  His  nature  was  all  serenity  and 
gentleness  (i  Kings  xix.  8-15).  Nothing  was 
done  by  Him  without  a  purpose  or  thoughtlessly. 
I'Lverything  which  He  began  was  accomphshed 
v/ith  assurance,  and  inevitably  attained  its  object. 
He  ever  kept  His  soul  in  serene  and  full  self- 
possession.  Even  in  the  most  trying  circum- 
stances He  maintained  mental  repose  and  perfect 
self-control"  (UUmann,  T/ie  Sinlessness  of  Jesus  ^ 
pp.  64,  65). 

1.  His  patience  was  never  broken,  nor  His  re- 
pose ever  ruffled.  He  never  lost  His  temper  or 
His  ability  to  reply  wisely,  calmly,  and  unselfishly 
(Luke  xi.  53,  54;  xxiii.  28,  29).  He  was  never 
disconcerted  by  interruptions  (Luke  v.  18-26), 
even  when  a  palsied  man  on  his  bed  was  let 
down  through  the  roof  before  Him  in  the  midst 
of  His  discourse.  The  Father  was  helping  Him 
to  finish  His  work,  and,  having  confidence  in  His 
Father,  He  was  never  disturbed  or  disappointed. 
So  Charles  Lamb  wrote  of  his  grandmother : 

"  For  she  Lad  studied  patience  in  the  school  of  Christ; 
Much  comfort  she  had  thence  derived, 
And  was  a  follower  of  the  Nazarene." 

2.  The  quiet,  unostentatious  evenness  of  His 
life  is  shown  in  the  way  He  sought  solitude  in 
His  success  (Mark  iii.  9,  10;  Luke  v.  15,  16). 
Great  social  power  is  ever  fed  from  the  springs 
of  holy  solitude. 

**  If  chosen  men  could  never  be  alone 
In  deep  mid-silence,  open-doored  to  God, 
No  greatness  ever  had  been  dreamed  or  done." 

Jesus  was  not  weak  because  He  was  gentle  and 
calm.  "  It  has  been  the  impression  of  the  world 
generally  that  patience,  gentleness,  readiness  to 


9^  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

suffer  wrong  without  resistance,  is  but  another 
name  for  weakness.  But  Christ  manages  to  con- 
nect these  non-resisting  and  gentle  passivities  with 
a  character  of  the  severest  grandeur  and  majesty." 
Indeed,  in  the  stormier  experiences,  the  "  sterner 
stress,"  where  His  strength  stood  out  in  bold  out- 
line against  the  background  of  opposition,  the 
unbroken  restfulness  and  peace  of  His  spirit  are 
seen  to  better  advantage  (John  viii.  27-30'  ', 
31-39).     He  knew  the  secret  of  strife, 

"  Of  toil  unsevered  from  tranquillity." 

3.  He  foresaw  His  own  death  and  spoke  of  it 
to  His  disciples  with  complete  calmness  (Mark  x. 
33,  34;  xiv.  8,  18). 

4.  In  the  last  bitter  experiences  of  His  life  He 
bore  Himself  with  even  composure.  Before  the 
Jewish  tribunal,  He  reminds  the  court  of  the 
proper  forms  of  procedure  (John  xviii.  23),  de- 
manding  that  the  evidence  should  be  heard,  the 
testimony  for  the  defense  to  be  regularly  pre- 
sented first,  and  He  at  once  called  the  servant 
who  smote  Him  as  one  who  had  heard  Him, 
and  asked  him  to  testify  as  to  the  words  he  had 
heard  Him  say,  and  to  refrain  from  unjust  vio- 
lence. In  the  scenes  that  followed,  "  as  a  lamb 
before  the  shearers  is  dumb,  so  opened  He  not 
His  mouth  "  (Luke  xxiii.  8 ;  John  xix.  9).  Ob- 
serve in  Mark's  account  His  passive  quietness 
(Mark  xv.  15-38).  A  common  robber  is  pre- 
ferred to  Him,  and  He  is  subjected  to  what 
Horace  called  the  "horrible  scourge,"  a  fitting 
prelude  to  crucifixion,  "the  aim  being  to  make 
the  crime  as  odious  as  possible  by  prefixing  pain 
to  pain,  infamy  to  infamy.  Such  a  prospect 
would  doubtless  act  as  a  deterrent  on  the  servile 
and  selfish,  and  he  must  have  been  a  man  with- 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  97 

out  feeling  who  could  unwaveringly  have  endured 
i^.  At  any  time  the  effects  must  have  been  hor- 
rible, but  when  justice  missed  its  mark,  and  pun- 
ishment fell  on  the  pure,  the  innocent,  the  noble, 
on  a  delicate  and  high-strung  sensibility,  they 
must  have  been  terrible  in  the  extreme  " — super- 
latively so  with  Jesus.  Yet  He  never  flinched. 
He  was  dressed  in  a  cast-off  robe,  and  acanthus 
thorns,  with  long  deadly  spikes,  were  crushed 
over  His  brow,  and  coarse  soldiers,  spitting  on 
Him  and  bowing  down  in  mock  subjection, 
made  sport  of  Him  (Luke  xxiii.  ii  ;  John  xix, 
1-5  ;  Matt,  xxvii.  27-31).  Worn  by  abuse,  His 
dehcate  frame  stumbled  under  the  burden  of  the 
cross  (John  xix.  17  ;  Mark  xv.  21).  He  refused 
a  drug  which  might  have  deadened  His  pain 
(Matt,  xxvii.  34),  and  died  with  a  cry  of  victory 
on  His  Hps  (Luke  xxiii.  46),  never  for  one 
moment  in  all  the  bitter  shame  and  suffering 
having  lost  the  perfect  composure  of  His  spirit, 
which  He  possessed  in  perfect  patience  (James 
v.  7-11). 

5.  Even  in  the  midst  of  all  this  He  kept  full 
consciousness  of  His  mission,  and  in  the  deaden- 
ing agony  of  the  cross  continued  to  open  to  men 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  (Luke  xxiii.  43).  Peace 
was  His  last  gift.  Peace  was  His  spirit  to  the 
end  (John  xiv.  27).  No  man  could  take  His 
disciples'  joy  from  them  (John  xvi.  22) ;  no  man 
could  take  His  joy  from  Him  (Heb.  xii.  2).  All 
that  Daniel's  "  Epistle  to  the  Countess  of  Cum- 
berland "  says  of  the  man  of  calm  and  governed 
spirit  was  true  of  Him,  and  more : 

*'  He  that  of  such  a  height  has  built  his  mind 
And  reared  the  dwelling  of  his  thoughts  so  strong 
As  neither  fear  nor  hope  can  shake  the  frame 
Of  his  resolved  powers,  nor  all  the  wind 


98  THE   MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

Of  vanity  or  malice  pierce  to  wrong 
His  settled  peace,  or  to  disturb  the  same — 
What  a  fair  seat  hath  he,  from  whence  he  may 
The  boundless  wastes  and  wealds  of  man  survey! 

"  And  with  how  free  an  eye  doth  he  look  down 
Upon  these  lower  regions  of  turmoil! 
Where  all  the  streams  of  passion  mainly  beat 
On  flesh  and  blood ;  where  honor,  power,  renown. 
Are  only  gay  afflictions,  golden  toil ; 
Where  greatness  stands  upon  as  feeble  feet 
As  frailty  doth,  and  only  great  doth  seem 
To  little  minds  who  do  it  so  esteem." 


6.  But  composure,  evenness,  may  be  said  to 
be  a  negative  virtue,  the  fruit  often  of  torpidity 
or  absence  of  spirit,  of  disinclination  to  do  strong 
and  brave  deeds  or  encounter  peril.  But  Jesus 
was  a  man  of  most  delicate  sensitiveness,  high 
spirit,  incessant  activity,  and,  so  far  from  lacking 
courage,  it  is  precisely  in  His  courage  and  the 
display  of  it  that  His  composure  of  spirit  is  most 
manifest.  The  courage  of  Christ's  self-restraint 
has  been  suggested  already  as  one  of  the  highest 
types  of  courage.  It  is  the  courage  of  com- 
posure. Both  it  and  the  composure  of  fearless 
activity  we  see  in  Christ :  in  His  calm  pursuit  of 
His  even  way  when  His  enemies  are  plotting 
against  Him  (John  vii.  i,  13,  25,  26 ;  xi.  55-57  ; 
xii.  9-1 1  ;  Luke  xiii.  31-33) ;  in  the  boldness  of 
His  replies  (Matt.  xv.  1-3) ;  in  His  quiet,  fearless 
conduct  in  the  face  of  personal  assault  (John  vii. 
44;  x.  31,  32,  39,  the  words  of  the  last  verse 
marking  the  power  of  Christ's  personal  majesty 
as  contrasted  with  the  excited  impotence  of  His 
adversaries) ;  in  His  cool  carelessness  of  the  dan- 
ger involved  in  His  movements  (John  xi.  8,  16); 
in  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  (Matt.  xxvi.  49- 
56),  where,  when  "  all  the  disciples  left  Him  and 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  99 

fled,"  with  twelve  unsummoned  legions  at  His 
call,  He  stood  calm  and  composed,  alone,  yet 
serene  and  without  fear. 


VIII.  His  broad  human  knowledge  and  interest 
in  nature. 

He  gazed  on  nature  with  a  child's  fresh  vision, 
and  saw 

**  Magic  as  of  morn 

Bursting  forever  newly  born 

On  forests  old, 
Waking  a  hoary  world  forlorn 
With  touch  of  gold. " 

1.  He  loved  to  watch  the  weather — sunrise 
(Mark  i.  35  ;  John  xxi.  4)  and  sunset  (John  vi. 
15-17;  Luke  vi.  12;  xxi.  37).  He  knew  the 
weather  lore  of  His  day  (Luke  xii.  54,  55  ;  Matt. 
xvi.  2,  3). 

"  Evening  red  and  morning  gray 
Sends  the  traveler  on  his  way; 
But  evening  gray  and  morning  red 
Sends  the  traveler  wet  to  bed." 

**  Red  sky  at  night  is  the  sailor's  delight ; 
Red  sky  in  the  morning  is  the  sailor's  warning." 

2.  He  studied  nature,  and  found  her  a  never- 
failing  source  of  illustration  and  appeal.  He 
deemed  her  the  "  garment  of  God." 

Plants  and  trees  He  watched  and  taught  from. 
To  him 

"  The  meanest  flower  that  blows  did  give 

Thoughts  that  did  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 

The  lilies  taught  the  lesson  of  trust  (Luke  xii.  27) ; 
the  fig-tree  the  lesson  of  expectancy,  the  duty  of 
having  our  faces  to   the   future,  not  the  past 


lOO  THE   MAN   CHRIST  JESUS 

(Mark  xiii.  28) ;  the  mustard-tree  and  the  wheat 
and  tares  the  comprehensiveness  and  the  perver- 
sion of  the  kingdom  of  God  (Matt.  xiii.  31,  32, 
24-30) ;  the  bramble  and  thorn  the  law  of  hered- 
ity and  character  (Luke  vi.  43,  44) ;  the  spring- 
ing wheat  the  law  of  growth  (Mark  iv.  28) ;  the 
scattered  grain,  springing  up  diversely,  the  truth 
of  spiritual  receptivity  or  irresponsiveness  (Matt, 
xiii.  16-23).  He  loved  the  trees;  why  should 
they  not  love  Him? 

**  Into  the  woods  my  Master  went, 
Clean  forspent,  forspent ; 
Into  the  woods  my  Master  came, 
Forspent  with  love  and  shame. 
But  the  olives  they  were  not  blind  to  Him, 
The  little  gray  leaves  were  kind  to  Him, 
The  thorn-tree  had  a  mind  to  Him, 
When  into  the  woods  He  came. 

"  Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  went, 
And  He  was  well  content ; 
Out  of  the  woods  my  Master  came, 
Content  with  death  and  shame. 
When  death  and  shame  would  woo  Him  last. 
From  under  the  trees  they  drew  Him  last ; 
'Twas  on  a  tree  they  slew  Him  last, 
When  out  of  the  woods  He  came." 

Nature  gave  Him  her  secrets.  Little  flowers  saw 
nothing  to  distrust  in  Him,  and  whispered  the 
messages  with  which  God  had  charged  them. 
He  received  what  we  pray  for  in  vain : 

**  Flower  out  of  the  crannied  wall,  I  pluck  you  out  of  the 

crannies, 
Hold  you  here  in  my  hand,  root  and  all,  little  flower ; 
But  if  I  could  understand  what  you  are,  root  and  all, 

and  all  in  all, 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is." 

3.  He  watched  the  hghtning  flash  and  saw  in  it 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  lOI 

a  tjymbol  of  the  suddenness  of  His  coming  (Luke 
xvii.  24).  What  sounded  to  others  as  thunder 
He  understood  as  a  clear  voice  from  the  Father 
(John  xii.  2S-30). 

4.  He  knew  the  ways  of  the  husbandman 
(Mark  xii.  i).  The  sower  supplied  Him  with  a 
parable  of  evangelization  (Luke  viii.  4-8)  and  a 
parable  of  life  (Mark  iv.  26-29)  5  ^^^  ^^^  vine- 
yard and  the  vine-dresser  gave  Him  illustrations 
of  the  law  of  production  (Matt.  xii.  ;^^),  of  the 
role  of  service  which  demands  use  or  removal 
(Luke  xiii.  6-9),  and  of  the  hfe  of  fellowship  and 
fruitfulness  (John  xv.  1-6). 

5.  He  was  peculiarly  alive  to  natural  sugges- 
tions, to  the  metaphors  of  life.  A  gust  of  wind 
in  the  empty  street  or  the  waving  of  a  vine  in  its 
branch  suggested  the  imagery  under  which  He 
expressed  the  mode  of  the  Spirit's  activity  (John 
iii.  8).  The  water  of  Jacob's  well  supplied  a  figure 
of  speech  for  eternal  life  (John  iv.  10).  The 
loaves  with  which  He  fed  the  thousands  on  the 
shores  of  Gennesaret  were  type  of  the  living 
bread,  His  flesh  which  He  gave  for  the  hfe  of 
the  world  (John  vi.  27,  35,  54-56).  His  vast 
promise  in  John  vii.  37,  38,  when  He  stood  and 
cried  on  the  last,  the  great  day  of  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles,  derived  its  significance  and  aptness, 
from  the  fact  that  the  omission  of  the  libation 
from  Siloam's  soft-flowing  waters  on  this  day 
pointed  the  worshipers  to  the  coming  of  the  true 
and  living  waters  when  the  Messiah  should  ap- 
pear. The  great  candelabra  in  the  Court  of  the 
Women,  symbolic  of  the  divine  light  which  guided 
Israel  through  the  wilderness,  suggested  His 
divine  assertion,  "  I  am  the  light  of  the  world  "■ 
(John  viii.  12).  Shepherd  life  suggested  a  parable 
of  the  Father's  love  (Luke  xv.  3-7),  and  the  sight 


I02  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

of  the  shepherds  and  their  flocks  on  the  hills  about 
Jerusalem  prompted  the  parable  of  the  Saviour's 
fulfilment  of  the  true  ideals  of  shepherd  and  fold 
alike  (John  x.  1-18).  The  sweet  words  spoken 
on  the  way  from  the  upper  room  to  Gethsemane, 
"  I  am  the  true  vine,"  were  suggested  perhaps  by 
the  sight  of  the  fires  in  the  vineyards  on  the  sur- 
rounding hills,  where  in  the  spring,  just  at  hand,  the 
husbandmen  were  burning  the  pruned  branches, 
and  by  the  odors  of  the  burning  branches  wafted 
over  the  brook  Kidron;  perhaps  by  the  vision 
df  the  great  golden  vine  on  the  temple  shining 
luminously  under  the  radiance  of  the  paschal 
moon,  and  accounted  by  all  Jews  the  richest  or- 
nament of  the  temple  (John  xv.  i-io). 

6.  He  had  watched  the  construction  of  houses. 
As  a  carpenter.  He  had  doubtless  helped  to  make 
good  houses  Himself.  He  knew  the  importance 
of  right  building  (Luke  vi.  48,  49).  The  homely 
ways  of  the  household  He  knew  also  (Matt.  xiii. 
S3  ;  Luke  xv.  8-10 ;  xiv.  34,  35). 

7.  Human  nature  and  its  ways  were  as  open 
to  Him  as  trees  and  plants  and  the  life  of  men. 
His  parables  show  His  complete  touch  with  life. 
He  knew  it  (Luke  xiv.  15-24;  xv.  11-32;  xvi. 
1-8 ;  xviii.  1-5).  He  understood  men's  motives 
(Luke  xvi.  14,  15;  xx.  23,  24).  His  eyes  shot 
human  character  through,  and  He  loved  to  watch 
it  and  to  help  it  (Luke  ix.  47;  xi.  17).  His 
knowledge  came  not  from  a  study  of  historic  ex- 
amples, nor  from  a  large  acquaintance  and  expe- 
rience among  men  of  diverse  types  and  in  chang- 
ing circumstances;  it  was  intuitive.  He  knew 
human  nature,  its  elements  and  its  operations 
(Mark  ii.  8;  John  ii.  24,  25). 

8.  Allusion  has  already  been  made,  however, 
to  Christ's  knowledge  of  men.    It  is  His  sympa- 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  10^ 

thy  with  the  world  that  is  especially  suggested 
here.  He  loved  the  open-air  life.  For  this 
reason  it  is  so  hard  to  put  Him  in  modern  set- 
ting. Only  the  canvas  of  the  open  sky  and  val- 
ley and  field  and  hill  and  sea  was  large  enough 
for  the  picture  of  Him.  He  constantly  taught 
by  the  seaside.  The  fisherfolk  were  His  friends 
and  first  disciples  (Mark  ii.  13 ;  iii.  7  ;  iv.  i  ;  v.  i, 
21  ;  vi.  32,  48  ;  vii.  31  ;  viii.  10).  Mark's  Gospel 
is  the  Gospel  of  the  Christ  of  the  sea  and  of  the 
villages  of  GaHlee  (Mark  vi.  6-  viii.  27).  Mark 
notes  the  occasions  when  Jesus  entered  houses  as 
though  exceptional  to  His  general  mode  of  hfe 
(Mark  i.  29  ;  ii.  i  ;  iii.  i,  20 ;  vii.  24 ;  ix.  ^:^).  He 
loved  the  mountains  also,  and  constantly  with- 
drew to  them  for  meditation  and  strength,  there 
doubtless 

"  Hearing  oftentimes 
The  still,  sad  music  of  humanity, 
Not  harsh  nor  grating,  but  of  ample  power 
To  chasten  and  subdue." 


The  Gospel  of  Matthew  is  the  Gospel  of  the 
mountains  and  their  great  righteousness  (Matt. 
iv.  8 ;  V.  I,  14 ;  xiv.  23 ;  xv.  29 ;  xvii.  i  ;  xviii.  12 
[cf.  Luke  XV.  4] ;  xxi.  i,  21  ;  xxiv.  3,  17  ;  xxvi. 
30;  xxviii.  16;  Psa.  xxxvi.  6).  He  constantly 
withdrew  to  the  hills ;  thither  He  went  when  He 
would  have  been  made  king,  when  the  news  of 
the  Baptist's  death  was  brought  to  Him,  for  the 
transfiguration,  for  the  last  command.  After  a 
whole  night  on  the  mountains  He  chose  the 
Twelve  and  gave  the  proclamation  of  the  king- 
dom in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  (Luke  vi.  12) ; 
and  from  a  mountain-top  He  went  back  to  the 
Father  who  sent  Him  (Acts  i.  12).  And  He 
went  often  out  into  the  fields  and  desert  places 


104  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

(Mark  ii.  23)  to  fight  out  His  battles  (Mark  i.  12, 
13)  and  to  pray  (Mark  i.  35),  hallowing  thus  for- 
ever 

"  Those  holy  fields 
Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
Which  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  were  nailed 
For  our  advantage  to  the  bitter  cross." 

He  frequented  also  the  woods  and  groves.  Geth- 
semane  was  a  favorite  haunt.  On  this  account 
Judas  felt  sure  He  would  be  found  there  that 
fatal  night  (John  xviii.  3). 

Now  it  is  not  surprising  that  a  good  man 
should  love  and  study  nature,  for  the  love  of 
nature  and  nature's  society  is  a  sign  and  fruit  of 
unselfishness.  And  it  is  to  be  expected  that  a 
reHgious  man  should  love  nature,  though  many 
religious  men  are  disinclined  to  believe  that  God 
is  nature's  King  and  Lord.  We  should  expect, 
therefore,  that  Jesus,  whose  life  was  rehgion  and 
unselfishness,  would  be  a  lover  of  the  world  which 
His  Father  made  and  pronounced  very  good, 
and  which,  next  to  His  Son  and  His  Spirit,  is  the 
best  prophet  He  has ;  but  we  cannot  but  be  sur- 
prised that  one  whose  life  was  so  practical,  so 
strong,  so  social,  should  keep  so  fresh  His  sym- 
pathies with  the  world,  and  find  time  to  enter  so 
deeply  and  so  freely  into  its  fellowship.  But 
even  Jesus'  love  of  the  open  air  and  the'country 
hfe  and  the  warmth  of  the  sun  on  sea  and  moun- 
tain gave  way  to  the  stern  work  and  stress  of  life 
and  suffering.  He  went  out  of  Jerusalem  every 
evening  of  the  last  week  (Mark  xi,  19),  but  He 
returned  in  the  morning  and  did  His  work,  and 
met  His  death,  not  as  a  recluse  dragged  into 
publicity,  not  as  a  student  remote  from  human 
life,  but  as  a  man  among  men.  So  must  we,  if 
He  is  our  Lord. 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  I05 

'  As  once  toward  heaven  my  face  was  set, 
I  came  unto  a  place  where  two  ways  met. 
One  led  to  Paradise  and  one  away ; 
And  fearful  of  myself  lest  I  should  stray, 

I  paused  that  I  might  know 
Which  was  the  way  wherein  I  ought  to  go. 
The  first  was  one  my  weary  eyes  to  please, 
Winding  along  thro'  pleasant  fields  of  ease. 
Beneath  the  shadows  of  fair  branching  trees. 
'  This  path  of  calm  and  solitude 
Surely  must  lead  to  heaven,'  I  cried. 

In  joyous  mood. 
*  Yon  rugged  one,  so  rough  for  weary  feet. 
The  footpath  of  the  world's  too  busy  street, 
Can  never  be  the  narrow  way  of  life.' 
But  at  that  moment  I  thereon  espied 
A  footprint  bearing  trace  of  having  bled, 
And  knew  it  for  the  Christ's,  so  bowed  my  head, 

And  followed  where  He  led." 


IX.   The  universality  of  His  character, 

"  The  difficulty  which  we  chiefly  feel  in  dealing 
with  the  character  of  Christ  as  it  unfolded  itself 
before  men  arises  from  its  absolute  perfection. 
On  this  very  account  it  is  less  fitted  to  arrest  ob- 
servation. A  single  excellence  unusually  devel- 
oped, though  in  the  neighborhood  of  great  faults, 
is  instantly  and  universally  attractive.  Perfect 
symmetry,  on  the  other  hand,  does  not  startle, 
and  is  hidden  from  common  and  casual  observ- 
ers. But  it  is  this  which  belongs  emphatically  to 
the  Christ  of  the  Gospels ;  and  we  distinguish  in 
Him  at  each  moment  that  precise  manifestation 
which  is  most  natural  and  most  right "  (Young. 
Tlie  Christ  of  History^  p.  217). 

I.  Jesus  was  a  man  of  profound  depth  of 
thought,  but  He  was  a  man  of  great  simplicity 
also,  no  recluse.  He  astounded  His  hearers  with 
His  wisdom  (Mark  vi.  2),  but  He  frequented 


Io6  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

weddings  (John  ii.  i,  2)  and  feasts  (Luke  v.  29; 
vii.  36)  to  such  an  extent  that  He  was  called  "  a 
gluttonous  man  and  a  winebibber,  a  friend  of 
pubHcans  and  sinners  "  (Luke  vii.  34).  He  made 
no  severance  between  doctrine  and  life.  He 
taught  doctrine,  but  it  was  a  doctrine  of  hfe.  John 
xiv.  6  was  a  summary  of  it.  He  declared  that 
the  final  judgment  would  be  decided  by  test  of 
conduct  (Matt.  xxv.  31-46),  but  it  was  conduct 
resting  on  and  springing  from  a  faith.  If,  on  the 
one  hand.  He  scorned  the  idea  that  faith  is 
merely  assent  to  the  truth  of  a  message  or  to  the 
testimony  of  the  senses,  He  would,  on  the  other 
hand,  have  been  the  last  to  tolerate  the  thought 
that  the  doctrine  is  immaterial  if  only  the  life  is 
sincerely  and  consistently  given  to  it.  If  a  man's 
hght  is  darkness,  he  is  not  free  to  love  and  do 
the  deeds  of  darkness.  Nay ;  how  great  is  tnat 
darkness!  He  would  have  denied  the  separation 
of  a  "  form  of  sound  words  "  from  a  transfigured 
and  transfiguring  life.  "The  words  which  I 
speak  unto  you  are  spirit  and  life  "  (John  vi.  68). 

2.  He  was  a  man  of  action,  energetic,  intense. 
The  people  agreed  that  He  surpassed  even  John 
the  Baptist,  the  very  embodiment  of  force  and 
vigor  (Matt.  xiv.  2).  They  even  expressed  the 
conviction  that  if  He  was  not  the  Christ,  the 
real  Christ  could  not  surpass  'Him  (John  vii.  31). 
Yet  He  was  never  overburdened  or  hastened, 
never  did  things  in  the  stress  of  work  He  was 
sorry  for  afterward,  never  shpped  or  went  to  ex- 
cess, never  had  to  retrace  and  apologize  or  correct. 
He  would  not  be  a  party  to  the  savage  discipline 
of  the  Samaritans  suggested  by  John  (Luke  ix. 
52-55)-  The  expression  of  His  energy  in  action 
was  restful  and  flawless. 

3,  He  was  a  man  of  feeling,  sentiment,  which 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  I07 

He  was  never  afraid  to  express  (John  xi.  36 ; 
Mark  x.  21).  If  Herod  suspects  that  He  is  John 
risen  from  the  dead  (Luke  ix.  9),  He  will  with- 
draw from  Herod's  dominion,  but  His  love  will 
not  let  Him  withdraw  from  those  in  need  (Matt, 
xiv.  12-14).  But  His  feeling  never  degenerates 
into  sentimentality.  It  is  always  clear,  high- 
toned,  and  pure.  Contrast  it  with  the  sentimen- 
tality, which  at  heart  was  dishonesty,  of  Judas 
(John  xii.  1-9). 

4.  He  was  not  only  a  great  thinker ;  He  was 
a  great  teacher.  He  combined  the  rare  gifts  of 
strong,  original  thought  and  virile,  luminous, 
penetrating  expression  of  thought.  He  appears 
with  both  gifts  fully  developed  ;  there  is  no  visible 
growth.  At  apparently  His  first  appearance  as 
a  public  teacher  in  Jerusalem  (John  vii.  14,  15), 
the  Jews  marveled  at  Him.  He  had  of  course 
surprised  the  simple  Gahleans  (Luke  iv.  22).  But 
here,  at  the  heart  and  head  of  the  nation.  He 
was  an  object  of  wonder  and  amazement.  He 
showed  Himself  to  be  master  of  the  hterary 
methods  of  the  time.  The  greatest  teachers  were 
as  children  to  Him  (John  vii.  46).  Pharisees 
and  doctors  flocked  to  hear  Him  (Luke  v.  17). 
His  methods  of  teaching  were  full  of  an  undying 
charm.  His  kindergarten  methods  were  irresisti- 
bly fresh  and  attractive  (Luke  ix.  47,  48),  and 
the  people  never  tired  of  His  teaching  (Mark  x. 
i).  In  Timceus  Plato  says,  "  Now  that  which  is 
created  must  of  necessity  be  created  by  a  cause. 
But  how  can  we  find  out  the  Father  and  Maker  of 
all  this  universe?  or  when  we  have  found  Him, 
how  shall  we  be  able  to  speak  of  Him  to  all  men?" 
(Jowett,  Plato,  vol.  ii.,  p.  523).  Jesus  made  Hiro 
known  to  babes.  His  plain,  frequent,  accurate.' 
endlessly  suggestive  statements  of  His  eternal 


I08  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

and  infinite  doctrine  (John  xvii.  8)  endure  to  this 
day  as  the  greatest  words  ever  spoken  in  our 
world. 

5.  Yet  if  He  could  speak  in  this  gracious  and 
commanding  way  (Luke  iv.  22,  32),  He  was  also 
a  man  of  immovable  taciturnity.  He  was  able  to 
say  nothing  (Luke  xx.  8;  Mark  xv.  2-5).  The 
silences  of  Jesus  are  as  significant  almost  as  His 
sayings.  Much  He  judged  us  unable  to  bear, 
and  kept  it  to  Himself  (John  xvi.  12).  He  is  a 
greater  man  who,  knowing  great  truths  whose 
time  has  not  come,  holds  them  in  his  heart  and 
is  consumed  by  them,  than  he  who  launches  them 
before  their  time  and  consumes  men  with  them. 

6.  He  had  an  infallible  discernment  of  times. 
He  was  not  an  opportunist,  but  His  opportunities 
never  escaped.  He  never  hurried  that  He  might 
not  be  too  late ;  He  never  went  ahead  of  time. 
Does  Lazarus  die?  He  appears  on  the  scene  at 
what  evidently,  in  some  hidden  plan,  is  the  right 
moment  (John  xi.  4,  6,  7,  17,  40).  Does  a  con- 
trary tempest  threaten  the  safety  of  the  little 
company  in  the  boat  on  the  sea?  At  the  oppor- 
tune moment  He  comes  walking  over  the  water 
to  their  relief  (John  vi.  18,  19).  He  had  com- 
plete confidence  in  His  discernment  of  His 
"hour"  (John  vii.  30 ;  viii.  20) ;  and  He  did  not 
shrink  when  the  clock  whose  face  He  alone  saw, 
and  whose  hands  He  had  been  watching,  struck 
the  closing  hour  of  His  day  (Luke  ix.  51  ;  John 
xiii.  i). 

7.  He  combined  alsr  traits  of  character  most 
difficult  of  combination^  as  Ullmann  points  out. 

(a)  He  was  dependent,  and  yet  independent. 
He  carried  all  resources  within  Himself,  and  yet 
He  craved  human  love  and  sympathy.  "  He 
who  had  not  where  to  lay  His  head  required  in 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  I09 

His  outward  life  the  aids  and  assistance  of  friend- 
ship ;  while  in  His  inner  life  He  stood  in  need  of 
the  love  of  His  own.  He  drew  John  nearer  to 
His  heart  than  the  rest  (John  xiii.  23).  He  re- 
joiced in  the  submission  of  the  woman  which  was 
a  sinner  (Luke  vii.  37-50).  He  desired  heartily 
to  eat  of  the  Passover  with  His  disciples ;  "  not 
the  ordinance  in  general,  "but  this  particular 
Passover  (Luke  xxii.  15),  since  it  was  to  be  His 
last  on  earth,  and,  indeed,  since  He  was  now 
solemnly  abrogating  the  ordinance,  the  last  Pass- 
over which  should  be  celebrated  in  the  world 
under  divine  sanction."  He  wanted  His  closer 
disciples  to  be  near  Him,  and  to  sympathize  and 
watch  with  Him  in  His  last  soul-agony  (Matt, 
xxvi.  38  ;  Mark  xiv.  23).  Yet  He  was  perfectly 
independent :  " independent  of  the  voice  of  the 
multitude ;  independent  of  the  enthusiasm  and 
prompting  of  His  disciples ;  independent  even 
when  face  to  face  with  the  bitter  criticism  and 
scorn  of  His  antagonists  ;  independent  of  all  save 
God  and  His  conscience"  (Liddon,  The  Divinity 
of  Our  Lord,  p.  171)  He  was  sovereign  and 
sufficient  to  Himself.  ''  The  need  of  the  sympathy 
of  others  never  became  to  Him  dependence  upon 
others.  He  could  say  to  the  apostles,  *  Ye  did 
not  choose  Me,  but  I  chose  you  '  (John  xv.  16). 
Nor  did  He  merely  say  this ;  He  always  acted 
upon  it.  For  always,  in  relation  to  everything 
that  was  highest.  He  appeared  in  the  character 
not  of  one  who  received,  but  of  one  who  gave, 
and,  indeed,  it  was  He  who,  Himself  entirely 
free,  was  the  first  to  make  His  fellow-men  partake 
of  true  freedom.  In  His  most  heavy  and  decisive 
trials  He  rehed  upon  Himself  alone.  In  Geth- 
semane,  where  the  disciples  slept,  on  the  cross, 
when  they  forsook  Him,  the  independence  and 


no  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

dignity  of  the  Shepherd  was  revealed  who 
remained  unmoved  when  the  sheep  of  the 
flock  were  scattered  (Matt.  xxvi.  31).  In  order 
to  attain  to  the  dominion  which  He  exercised, 
He  did  not,  like  others,  require  to  make  use  of 
means  external  to  Himself.  On  the  contrary, 
every  agency  by  which  He  worked  was  within 
Himself."  His  self-reliance  was  natural,  springing 
from  the  hidden  source  of  His  divine  hfe  (John 
v.  26).  The  government  was  upon  His  shoulders 
(Isa.  ix.  6).  ''But  in  this  self-reliance,  in  which 
Jesus,  as  altogether  free  and  altogether  holy,  stood 
out  from  the  world  whose  sin  He  so  deeply  felt, 
He  nevertheless  did  not  show  Himself  exclusive 
and  unsympathizing  toward  the  sinful  and  guilty. 
On  the  contrary,  it  was  just  as  one  wholly  self- 
dependent  that  He  gave  Himself  to  the  world." 
From  this  self-dependence  He  looked  out  upon 
a  world  in  which  nothing  was  alien  to  Him,  no 
need,  no  sorrow.  His  first  text  was  a  proclama- 
tion of  this  (Luke  iv.  18).  This  text  He  at  once 
translated  into  action  (Matt.  xi.  4,  5).  He  ful- 
filled the  prophet's  vision  of  the  ideal  servant 
and  friend  of  men  (Matt.  xii.  18-21),  and  His 
constant  cry  was,  "  Come  unto  Me.  I  will  give 
you  rest"  (Matt.  xi.  28). 

[b)  He  combined  action  and  endurance,  doing 
and  suffering.  This  was  the  union  of  positive 
power  and  self-restraint,  of 

"  Being  and  suffering  (which  are  one)." 

"Action  and  endurance  were  united  at  every 
period  of  His  life.  There  was  displayed  by  Him 
at  all  times  a  sublime  and  heroic  energy  and  a 
calm,  patient  endurance.  These  combined  to 
forai  a  character  absolutely  unlike  any  other. 
The  life  of  Jesus  appears  in  the  first  instance  to 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  III 

have  been  essentially  one  of  action,  at  least  as 
far  as  it  meets  the  pubhc  eye."  Peter  gives  ut- 
terance to  this  impression  (Acts  x.  38) ;  and 
Jesus  Himself  spoke  of  His  constant  dihgence 
while  it  was  day  (John  ix.  4).  Here  again  He  is 
example  for  men  of  the  truth  of  R.  Tarphon's 
saying,  "  The  day  is  short  and  the  task  is  great, 
and  the  workmen  are  sluggish  and  the  reward  is 
much,  and  the  Master  of  the  house  is  urgent." 
And  He  even  defined  His  whole  life  and  mission 
by  the  word  "work"  (John  xvii.  4).  "In  ac- 
comphshing  this  work.  His  will  was  constantly 
and  invariably  directed  toward  one  end,  and  in 
every  position  into  which  He  enters  we  see  that 
ruling  power  by  which  great  souls  like  His  exer- 
cise an  influence  over  all  susceptible  minds  which 
seems  almost  magical." 

"  At  the  same  time,  we  must  not  overlook  the 
fact  that  the  actual  work  of  Christ  was  ever  ac- 
companied by  suifering.  His  very  entrance  upon 
the  work  prescribed  to  Him  by  God  arose  from 
a  sympathy  with  sinful  humanity ;  and  this  sym- 
pathy, which  was  never  for  a  moment  absent 
from  His  spirit,  was  the  cause  of  that  peculiar 
vein  of  melancholy  which  ran  through  His  whole 
nature."  His  weeping  over  the  death  of  Lazarus 
— what  was  this  but  His  intense  suffering  under 
His  conflict  with  sin,  and  in  view  of  the  real  and 
present  effects  of  sin,  finding  expression  in  tears 
of  sympathy?  (John  xi.  35-38).  Witness  also 
the  great,  heartbroken  cry  (John  v.  40),  "  Ye  will 
not  come  to  Me,  that  ye  may  have  life."  "  The 
accomplishment  of  His  work  involved  a  constant 
conflict  with  sin  (Mark  i.  13;  viii.  :^^).  This 
conflict  He  experienced  at  every  step,  and  its 
assaults  caused  Him  the  keenest  physical  suffer- 
ings."    He  came  to  fight,  and  to  set  men  fight- 


112  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

ing,  sin.  He  came  to  give  a  sword,  not  peace, 
and  to  cast  fire  upon  the  earth  (Luke  xii.  49,  50). 
It  must  be  so.  "  Everything  fertile  in  results," 
says  Renan  "  is  rich  in  wars."  The  conflict  was 
deadly,  and  it  "  distracted  "  Him,  He  said.  It 
resulted  at  last  in  the  painful  death  of  the  cross, 
and  the  deeper  sorrow  of  the  soul  at  the  thought 
that  all  His  sorrows  were  inflicted  by  those  He 
came  to  save  (John  i.  11).  "Throughout  all  this 
struggle,  which  as  man  He  felt  most  keenly,  He 
possessed  His  soul  in  unwearied  patience,  never 
murmuring  or  complaining,  but  in  all  things  com- 
mitting Himself  to  God  as  His  servant  who 
must  be  made  perfect  by  suffering."  We  can 
trace  the  inward,  struggle  in  John  xii.  23-28, 
where  the  visit  of  the  Greeks  foreshadowed  the 
coming  judgment  on  Israel,  and  suggested  the 
means  by  which  it  would  be  brought  about.  He 
did  not  pray  to  escape.  He  only  asked,  "  Bring 
Me  safely  out  of  this  dreadful  conflict.  I  do  not 
ask  to  be  kept  from  it.  Let  Me  carry  life  through 
it  to  the  cross."  "Thus  all  He  did  was  at  the 
same  time  so  much  endured ;  His  actions  were 
His  sufferings  too.  And  not  less  true  is  it  that 
His  sufferings  were  also  actions.  What  He  en- 
dured was  at  the  same  time  the  work  He  had  to 
do.  For  although  all  that  He  suffered  came  to 
Him  from  without,  still  it  did  not  remain  without 
Him,  as  it  were  something  external  to  Himself, 
because  He  entered  upon  every  trial  by  voluntary 
choice,  with  the  fullest  consciousness  that  He  was 
submitting  Himself  to  a  divine  appointment,  and 
with  full  acquiescence  in  the  divine  will  (John  xii. 
27  ;  xviii.  i)." 

And   His  actions  were  the  mightiest  of  the 
actions  of  men  because  His  sufferings  were  the 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  II3 

deepest.    As  Ugo  Bassi  declared,  in  his  "  Sermon 
in  the  Hospital  " : 

"  And  now  what  more  shall  I  say?     Do  I  need  here 
To  draw  the  lesson  of  this  life,  or  say 
More  than  these  few  words,  following  up  the  text : 
The  Vine  from  every  living  limb  bleeds  wine ; 
Is  it  the  poorer  for  that  spirit  shed? 
The  drunkard  and  the  wanton  drink  thereof ; 
Are  they  the  richer  for  that  gift's  excess? 
Measure  thy  life  by  loss  instead  of  gain ; 
Not  by  the  wine  drunk,  but  the  wine  poured  forth ; 
For  love's  strength  standeth  in  love's  sacrifice, 
And  whoso  suffers  most  hath  most  to  give." 

"  Thus  at  every  step  of  the  life  of  Jesus,  action 
and  suffering,  heroic  power  to  do  and  to  endure, 
act  and  react  upon  each  other,  permeating  and 
transfusing  one  another,  never  existing  apart,  but 
ever  in  combination ;  and  it  is  in  this  view  that 
His  character  presents  that  inward  harmony 
which  made  men  see  in  Him,  as  distinguished 
from  a  sinful  world,  the  Righteous  and  Holy 
One "  (Ullmann,   The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus^  pp. 

72-73)- 

{c)  He  combined  majesty  and  humility.  His 
life  was  an  unbroken  act  of  lowly  sacrifice 
and  self-denial  (Matt.  xi.  28-30),  typified  in  the 
supreme  act  of  love  before  the  end  (John  xiii. 
4,  5).  Speaking  of  His  whole  life,  He  declared, 
"  I  am  in  the  midst  of  you  as  one  that  serveth  " 
(Luke  xxii.  27).  Thus  by  His  constant  words 
and  His  consummating  act  of  love  He  bore 
"  testimony  to  the  truth  that  He  regarded  the 
perfection  of  life  as  consisting  in  the  abasement 
of  love."  He  left  this  impression  on  men.  The 
dignity  of  the  divine  Lord  was  not  more  real  to 
the  early  Christians  than  the  lowliness  of  the 


114  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

Friend  of  sinners  (2  Cor.  x.  i).  "Though  He 
was  from  eternity  God  equal  with  the  Father," 
Paul  wrote,  "  yet  He  did  not  account  His  divine 
state  a  desirable  thing  to  be  tenaciously  grasped, 
a  prize  to  be  jealously  retained ;  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, stripped  Himself  of  its  glories,  and,  with  an 
infinite  stoop  of  condescension,  took  the  form  of 
a  slave  "  (Phil.  ii.  5-8).  He  was  the  meek  and 
gentle  Jesus,  the  "  man  of  sorrows,"  a  lamb  dumb 
before  its  shearers,  led  even  to  slaughter  without 
complaint,  reviled,  and  reviling  not  again. 

"The  best  of  men 
That  ere  wore  earth  about  Him  was  a  sufferer, 
A  soft,  meek,  patient,  humble,  tranquil  spirit, 
The  first  true  gentleman  that  ever  breathed." 


*'  And  yet,  from  beneath  the  covering  of  abase- 
ment and  reproach  which  veiled  His  glory  for  a 
season,  there  shone  forth  at  all  times  the  light  of 
a  kingly  soul,  and  His  words  as  well  as  His  ac- 
tions express  an  inner  consciousness  which  we 
must  either  not  understand  at  all  or  understand 
as  a  consciousness  of  infinite  superiority.  .  .  . 
How  mighty  was  the  influence  of  the  majesty  of 
His  personal  appearance,  and  how  universally 
was  that  influence  felt  ! "  The  fallen  disciple  felt 
it,  and  went  out  into  the  darkness  weeping  bitterly 
(Luke  xxii.  61).  The  Sanhedrin's  police  stood 
before  His  teaching  powerless  (John  vii.  46).  The 
excited  accusers  who  sought  to  have  Him  stoned 
confessed  its  power  (John  x.  31).  The  caitiffs 
sent  to  arrest  Him  in  the  garden  fell  over  one 
another  in  their  haste  to  retreat  from  His  presence 
(John  xviii.  6).  A  malefactor  on  his  cross  "rec- 
ognized in  his  fellow-sufferer  his  divine  Deliverer 
and  his  King  "  (Luke  xxiii.  40-42). 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  II*, 

His  words  were  not  less  majestic  than  His 
bearing  (Luke  iv.  16-21  ;  John  xviii.  37).  There 
was  neither  in  these  nor  in  His  conduct  any 
incapacity  or  lack  of  force  (Matt.  vii.  29).  In 
Matthew  xxiii.  He  showed  that  He  possessed 
and  could  use  the  most  terrific  power  of  speech, 
and  an  irresistible  energy  of  denunciation  and 
rebuke.  Indeed,  the  fierceness  of  that  outburst 
is  sometimes  counted  a  defect  in  Christ,  a  re- 
proach upon  His  gentleness.  But  Milton  replies 
to  this,  in  his  "Apology  for  Smectymnus  "  :  "  For 
in  times  of  opposition,  when  against  new  heresies 
arising  or  old  corruptions  to  be  reformed,  this 
cool,  impassionate  mildness  of  positive  wisdom 
is  not  enough  to  damp  and  astonish  the  proud 
resistance  of  carnal  and  false  doctors,  then  (that 
I  may  have  leave  to  soar  awhile,  as  the  poets 
use)  Zeal,  whose  substance  is  ethereal,  arming  in 
complete  diamond,  ascends  his  fiery  chariot, 
drawn  by  two  blazing  meteors  figured  like  beasts, 
but  of  a  higher  breed  than  any  the  zodiac  yields, 
resembling  those  four  which  Ezekiel  and  St.  John 
saw :  the  one  visaged  hke  a  lion  to  express  power, 
high  authority,  and  indignation ;  the  other  of 
man  to  cast  disdain  and  scorn  upon  perverse  and 
fraudulent  seducers ;  with  them  the  invincible 
warrior.  Zeal,  shaking  loosely  the  slack  reins, 
drives  over  the  heads  of  scarlet  prelates  and  such 
as  are  insolent  to  maintain  traditions,  bruising 
their  stiff  necks  under  the  flaming  wheels.  Thus 
did  the  true  prophets  of  old  combat  with  the 
false ;  thus  Christ  Himself,  the  fountain  of  meek- 
ness, found  acrimony  enough  to  be  still  galling 
and  vexing  the  prelatical  Pharisees.  But  ye  will 
say,  these  had  immediate  warrant  from  God  to 
be  thus  bitter,  and  I  say,  so  much  the  plainer  is 
it  found  that  there  may  be  a  sanctified  bitterness 


Il6  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

against  the  enemies  of  the  truth"  (quoted  by  Bush- 
nell,  The  Character  of  Jesus,  p.  74). 

The  breadth  and  depth  of  Jesus'  character  are 
shown  in  this  union  of  meekness  and  power,  and 
the  nature  of  the  union,  for  "the  majesty  of 
Jesus  consisted  in  this,  that  His  high  soul  bowed 
in  deep  humihty  before  God;  and  the  perfect 
humihty  of  Jesus  consisted  in  this,  that  it  was 
the  humihty  not  of  the  sinner  who,  oppressed  by 
a  sense  of  utter  unworthiness,  abases  himself  be- 
fore God,  but  that  of  one  who  retained  all  the 
while  the  high  consciousness  of  perfect  fellowship 
with  God"  (Ullmann,  The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus y 

P-  74). 

Majestic  and  powerful  He  was ;  yet  how  glad 
are  we  that  He  fulfilled  chivalry's  ideal  of  gentle 
meekness! 

*'  Tho'  that  He  was  worthy,  He  was  wise, 
And  of  His  port  as  meek  as  is  a  maid; 
He  never  yet  no  villainy  ne  said; 
In  all  His  life  unto  no  manner  wight, 
He  was  a  very  gentle,  perfect  knight." 

{d)  He  combined  joyousness  with  a  seriousness 
which  has  seemed  to  most  men  sadness. 

Words  which  are  unutterably  impressive  in 
their  solemn  and  chastened  seriousn-ess  He  speaks 
of  as  designed  to  produce  joy  (John  xv.  11).  He 
embodies  a  prayer  for  His  disciples'  joy  in  the 
great  and  solemn  suppHcation  which  is  to  the 
Christian  heart  as  the  very  Holy  of  Holies  (John 
xvii.  13).  All  these  last  words  of  His  were  marked 
with  an  inexpressible  sadness  of  joy  (John  xvi.  20- 
22,  32).  There  are  not  wanting  occasions  when 
the  transitions  from  joy  to  sadness  and  from  sad- 
ness to  joy  are  evident  (Luke  xix.  38,  41 ;  Matt, 
xi.  20,  25). 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  II7 

Jesus  "  is  never  said  to  have  laughed,  and  yet 
He  never  produces  the  impression  of  austerity, 
moroseness,  excessive  sadness,  or  being  ever  un- 
happy. We  could  not  long  endure  a  being  whose 
face  was  never  moved  by  laughter  or  relaxed 
by  humorous  play ;  yet  we  have  sympathy  with 
Christ,  for  there  is  somewhere  in  Him  an  ocean 
of  deep  joy,  and  we  see  that  He  is,  in  fact,  only 
burdened  with  His  sympathy  for  us  to  such  a 
degree  that  His  mighty  life  is  oppressed  and 
overcast  by  the  charge  He  had  undertaken" 
(Bushnell,  The  Character  of  Jesus ^  p.  20). 

There  was  no  contradiction  in  Jesus'  mind  be- 
tween sorrow  and  joy.  He  knew  that  there  was 
a  heavy  sorrow  which  was  the  basis  of  sympathy, 
and  the  necessary  condition  and  preparation  for 
joy — such  joy  as  should  not  be  transitory.  Out 
of  the  extremity  of  His  own  sorrow  wa«-  the  joy 
of  a  new  life  to  come  to  the  world. 

8.  This  universality  of  Christ's  personahty, 
like  the  universality  of  His  plans,  is  the  more 
marvelous  because  He  was  truly  a  Jew.  No  one 
ever  accused  Him  successfully  of  lack  of  Jewish 
sympathy  or  understanding,  or  of  being  wholly 
hostile  to  the  Jewish  system,  as  the  charge  was 
brought  against  Stephen  (Acts  vi.  13,  14).  Cer- 
tain accusations  were  made  against  Him,  based 
on  a  misstatement  of  His  words  regarding  the 
destruction  of  "this  temple"  (John  ii.  19-21), 
but  they  broke  down  (Mark  xiv.  58,  59).  But 
He  was  not  narrow,  however,  with  the  narrow- 
ness of  the  Jewish  range  of  vision  of  His  day. 
Even  the  Jews  of  the  Dispersion  were  out  of  this 
range  (John  vii.  35).  The  suggestion  that  He 
might  go  to  the  Dispersion  among  the  Greeks  and 
teach  the  Greeks  was  the  climax  of  irrationality  to 
the  Pharisees  in  one  who  claimed  to  be  Messiah. 


il8  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

His  universal  terms  were  enigmatical  to  them.  Yet 
He  kept  on  His  way,  free  from  limitations,  mani- 
festing not  this  or  that  type  of  excellence,  but  the 
life.  "  In  Him  was  hfe,  and  the  life  was  the  light 
of  men  "  (John  i.  4).  "  Not  the  light  of  the  Jews 
only,"  says  Theophylact,  **  but  of  all  men  ;  for  all 
of  us,  in  so  far  as  we  have  received  intellect  and 
reason  from  the  Word  which  created  us,  are  said 
to  be  illuminated  by  Him,"  and  we  approach  to 
His  likeness  in  character  in  proportion  as  the 
universal  light  of  the  Life  irradiates  oiu  souls. 

Jesus  '*  gathered  up  in  Himself  what  apper- 
tains to  all  humanity  in  every  age  and  in  every 
nation.  This  is  one  of  the  principal  character- 
istics by  which  Jesus  is  distinguished  from  all  the 
great  spirits  of  antiquity,  even  the  greatest  of 
them.  However  profound  in  thought  these  men 
may  have  been,  however  comprehensive  in  ac- 
tion, they  still  bear,  all  of  them,  the  impress  of 
their  own  peculiar  nationality,  they  still  mirror 
back  the  age  in  which  they  lived ;  and  this  is 
true  not  only  of  their  Hfe  in  its  outward  form, 
but  also  of  their  deepest  and  inmost  nature. 
Even  Socrates  knew  no  higher  virtue  than  a  free 
obedience  to  the  law  of  his  country  and  a  faithful 
observance  of  the  customs  of  the  fathers.  Their 
noblest  enthusiasm  was  aroused  by  the  interests 
of  their  fatherland,  and  the  highest  deed  they 
could  achieve  was  to  die  for  it.  They  grew  out 
of  the  spirit  of  their  people  and  their  times.  So, 
too,  the  effect  they  wrought  on  age  and  nation 
was  determined  by  the  measure  in  which  they 
gave  that  spirit  a  fitting  and  noble  expression. 
But  Jesus  was  the  realization  of  the  ideal  of  hu- 
manity ;  and  thus  He  was  the  first  who,  setting 
out  from  His  own  people,  was  not  confined  in 
His  working  within  its  limits.     He  embraced  the 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  ^19 

whole  human  race  in  the  circle  of  His  love ;  for 
it  He  sought  to  hve  and  He  dared  to  die  "  (Ull- 
mann,  The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus ^  pp.  68,  69). 

X.    The  perfect  balance  of  His  character. 

In  Him  all  virtues  were  con-elated.  No  one 
overbalanced  its  correlative  or  was  pushed  to  ex- 
tremity of  exaggeration.  "  He  joined,"  as  Chan- 
ning  says,  *'  strong  feeling  to  self-possession,  an 
indignant  sensibility  to  sin  and  compassion  for  the 
sinner,  an  intense  devotion  to  His  work  and 
calmness  under  opposition  and  ill  success,  a 
universal  philanthropy  and  a  susceptibility  to 
private  attachments,  the  authority  which  became 
the  Saviour  of  the  world  and  the  tenderness  and 
gratitude  of  a  son." 

1.  He  was  lovingly  merciful  and  inflexibly 
just.  He  combines  these  qualities  in  His  instruc- 
tions to  His  disciples  (Matt.  v.  48  ;  Luke  vi.  36). 
Equity  is  safe  with  Him ;  so  is  repentant  sin. 

2.  He  was  incarnate  truth  and  incarnate  love 
(John  xiv.  6  ;  Rom.  v.  7,  8) — truth  in  which  is 
summed  up  all  that  is  absolute  and  eternal,  love 
in  which  is  summed  up  all  that  ^s  abidingly  at- 
tractive and  beautiful. 

3.  He  was  firm,  but  not  obstinate  (John  xiii. 
i-ii).  Peter  objected  to  Christ's  washing  his 
feet.  Jesus  rejoined  that  "the  meaning  of  the 
act  would  be  understood  only  afterward  when 
Christ  had  been  glorified.  Peter  takes  up  the 
thought  of  hereafter.  Nothing,  he  would  argue, 
can  ever  alter  my  position  in  regard  to  my  Lord. 
That  is  fixed  eternally.  *  Thou  shalt  never  wash 
my  feet — no,  not  while  the  world  lasts.'  He 
assumed  that  he  could  foresee  all ;  hence  his 
reverence  takes  the  form  of  self-will,  just  as  in 


X20  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

the  corresponding  incident  in  Matthew  xvi.  22, 
where  also  his  self-willed  reverence  for  Christ 
brings  down  a  stern  reproof.  Christ  meets  him 
with  a  declaration  of  the  necessary  separation 
which  must  ensue  from  the  want  of  absolute  sub- 
mission "  (Westcott, Bible Co??i??ientary, "St.  John's 
Gospel,"  p.  191).  "Peter,"  He  said,  "the  first 
condition  of  discipleship  is  self-surrender."  Here, 
as  always,  Jesus  was  immovably  firm,  but  it  was 
the  reasonable  firmness  of  wisdom  and  love.  He 
never  surrendered  a  point  nor  abandoned  a  plan  ; 
yet  He  never  creates  the  impression  of  other  than 
a  gentle,  sympathetic,  considerate  man. 

4.  He  was  calm  and  self-contained,  but  not 
indifferent  (Mark  iv.  37-41).  When  He  was 
waked  from  His  sleep  in  the  boat  on  Gennesaret, 
what  Wyclif  calls  "  the  great  peaceableness  "  of 
the  sea  He  calmed  was  not  more  tranquil  than 
He,  and  yet  its  living,  speaking  waters  were  not 
more  active  and  responsive.  The  story  of  the 
healing  of  the  woman  with  an  issue  of  blood 
shows  also  the  calm  self-poise  which  never  hard- 
ened into  indifiierentism  (Luke  viii.  43-48). 

5.  He  was  unselfish,  but  never  wasteful  or 
patronizing.  He  endeavored  to  save  the  ener- 
gies of  His  disciples  and  His  own  by  seeking  to 
avoid  the  over-insistent  multitude  (Mark  vi.  31). 
He  reserved  His  praise  of  the  Baptist  till  his  dis- 
ciples had  departed  (Matt.  xi.  7).  His  unselfish- 
ness was  always  wise  and  discriminating,  never 
offensive  or  careless.  The  apparent  hardness  of 
His  reply  to  the  Syrophenician  woman  is  under- 
stood in  this  light  as  a  check  of  test  upon  His 
ever  ready  helpfulness,  softened  wholly  by  His 
hopeful  words,  "Jirst  be  filled,"  implying  clearly 
enough  that  there  were  others  to  be  filled  also, 
and  by  His  subsequent  deed  of  love  (Mark  vii. 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  121 

24-30).  He  gave  Himself  and  all  His  energies, 
not  with  vulgar  abandon,  but  with  wise,  obedient, 
and  loving  discrimination. 

6.  He  was  helpful,  but  not  officious.  Officious- 
ness  is  the  proffer  of  assistance  on  improper  terms, 
or  insisting  upon  its  acceptance  by  those  who  have 
no  sense  of  their  need  of  it.  Jesus  gave  no  such 
help.  He  was  anxious  to  aid  every  need,  but 
only  on  right  terms  (Mark  ix.  23,  24).  His 
lament  was  that  men  would  not  come  to  Him 
for  life.     He  would  force  life  upon  no  one. 

7.  He  was  strong,  but  not  rough  ;  vigorous,  but 
always  gentle.  In  manly  fashion  He  went  always 
straight  to  the  root  of  things,  but  He  was  always 
most  tender  in  His  treatment  of  the  weaknesses 
exposed  (Mark  ix.  33-37),  unless  they  were 
grounded  in  bad  wills  hopelessly  beyond  cure 
(Matt,  xxiii.).  Our  definitions  of  "gentleman" 
need  revision  in  the  light  of  Christ's  character. 
The  adjective  is  an  essential  part  of  the  word, 
and  should  hold  its  original  meaning.  At  best 
it  is  superfluous.  Manliness,  understood  in  the 
terms  of  Him  who  called  Himself  "  the  Son  of 
man,"  is  sufficient.  But  our  manliness  is  too 
often  a  world's  remove  from  that  childlikeness 
which  He  declared  was  the  glory  of  man's  char- 
acter, and  to  which,  rather  than  to  coarse  strength 
and  self-assertion,  the  rewards  of  primacy  and 
leadership  belonged. 

8.  He  was  feminine,  but  not  effeminate.  We 
see  His  unsurpassed  delicacy  and  tact  in  the 
story  of  the  woman  with  the  issue  of  blood.  Her 
disease  was  a  shame  to  her,  rendering  her  Leviti- 
cally  unclean.  So  He  did  not  call  her  forth  from 
the  crowd  till  she  was  healed,  and  could  without 
fear  or  shame  declare  it  all  past,  and  herself 
healed,  free,  and  whole  (Luke  viii.  41-56).     His 


12.2  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

womanly  tenderness  was  scarcely  less  apparent 
when,  a  few  hours  later,  He  addressed  the  little 
maid,  Jairus's  daughter,  in  her  own  tongue,  and 
with  motherly  solicitude  provided  at  once  for  the 
child's  needs.  But  He  was  never  thought  of  as 
effeminate ;  He  was  charged  rather  with  display- 
ing the  fiery  energy  of  Beelzebub. 

9.  He  was  innocent  and  yet  forceful.  This  is 
a  rare  but  divinely  necessary  combination.  How 
rare  is  indicated  by  the  popular  fallacy  that  only 
those  who  have  had  personal  experience  of  sin  and 
evil  can  denounce  and  intelligently  antagonize  it. 
As  though  God  would  be  a  greater  and  better 
God  if  He  had  once  been  a  devil!  He  who 
knew  no  sin,  and  in  whose  mouth  no  guile  had 
ever  been  found,  knew  better  than  this,  and 
proved  otherwise  by  His  own  example. 

{a)  The  purgings  of  the  Temple  (John  ii.  1 3-1 7  ; 
Matt.  Kxi.  12-14).  Ii^  the  Temple  of  the  Jews 
in  Jerusalem,  in  the  midst  of  the  prerogatives  and 
vested  privileges  of  the  powerful  classes  of  the 
nation,  alone,  stood  a  Galilean  peasant  with  a 
scourge  in  His  hand,  and  mone)7--changer  and 
priest  fell  back  before  the  flash  of  His  blazing 
eye  and  the  wrath  of  His  innocence,  and  obeyed 
Him  (As  Others  Saiv  Hun,  chap.  i.).  His  dis- 
ciples looked  on  Him  with  awe,  remembered  that 
it  was  written,  "The  zeal  of  Thine  house  shall 
eat  Me  up, "  and  beheld  the  words  fulfilled  be- 
fore their  eyes  in  the  overpowering  energy  and 
irresistible  fearlessness  of  the  Son  roused  to  the 
defense  of  His  Father's  house. 

{b)  The  denunciation  of  the  Pharisees  (Matt, 
xxiii.)  is  explicable  only  on  the  ground  of  His 
innocence  of  character.  We  can  understand  His 
words  only  as  we  "conceive  them  bursti-ng  out 
as  words  of  indignant  grief  from  the  surcharged 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  1 23 

■  bosom  of  innocence ;  for  there  is  noii»in  f  so  bitter 
as  the  offense  that  innocence  feels  wnen  stung 
by  hypocrisy  and  a  sense  of  cruelty  to  the  poor." 

{c)  His  interview  with  the  woman  taken  in 
adultery  (John  viii.  i-ii).  The  bringing  of  the 
woman  to  Jesus  was  an  evidence  of  His  spotless 
purity  and  innocence,  and  also  of  His  equity  and 
trustworthiness.  This  was  not  the  motive  of  the 
accusers  of  the  woman,  but  such  testimony  their 
conduct  bore.  At  the  thought  of  their  coarse  in- 
decency Jesus  hung  His  head  in  shame,  blushing 
for  the  depths  to  which  men  could  descend. 
And  when,  with  the  blush  of  indignant  but 
sorrow-burdened  innocence,  He  challenged  any 
pure  man  among  them  to  begin  the  legal  punish- 
ment, they  shrank  away  and  stole  off,  from  the 
eldest,  the  man  of  fullest  experience,  whom  con- 
science smote  hardest,  down  to  the  youngest, 
until,  as  Augustine  says,  "  two  were  left,  the  un- 
happy woman  and  Compassion  incarnate."  There 
was  no  law-destroying  sentiment  then,  surrender- 
ing the  absolute  and  eternal  standards  of  purity 
and  righteousness.  If  innocence  was  compas- 
sionate, it  was  not  false  to  the  laws  of  God  and  of 
life.  He  simply  sent  the  woman  away,  with  no 
words  of  forgiveness,  but  only  of  suspended  sen- 
tence. 

{d)  The  appearance  of  the  innocent  victim  at 
the  entrance  of  the  garden  the  night  of  the  be- 
trayal, with  the  simple  words  of  identification 
and  self-surrender,  smote  the  company  of  soldiers, 
Temple  police,  and  priests  with  consternation  and 
terror  (John  xviii.  4-8). 

10.  He  was  courageous,  but  never  rash  or 
foolhardy.  His  courage  is  shown  clearly  in 
what  has  been  already  said  of  His  absolute  lack 
of  fear,  in  the  daring  magnitude  of  His  plan,  in 


124  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

His  scorn  of  all  low  means  of  attaining  its 
triumph,  in  His  hatred  of  lies,  in  His  daring  to 
be  narrow  where  men  were  broad,  and  broad 
where  men  were  narrow,  in  the  unconventional 
freedom  of  His  life ;  but  He  never  rashly  threw 
away  His  cause  or  any  opportunity  of  doing  it 
permanent  benefit,  nor  ever  wasted  His  Hfe. 

II.  This  balance  of  character  Jesus  showed 
not  less  in  His  teaching  than  in  His  conduct. 
"  His  message  combines  those  moral  contrasts 
which  give  permanency  and  true  force  to  a  doc- 
trine, and  which  the  gospel  alone  has  combined 
in  their  perfection.  So  as  teacher  Jesus  was 
tender,  yet  searching.  He  won  the  hearts  of 
men  by  His  kindly  sympathy  and  humanity, 
while  He  probes  to  the  quick  their  moral  sores. 
He  is  uniformly  calm,  yet  moved  by  the  fire  of 
repressed  passion.  He  is  stern,  yet  not  unlov- 
ing, and  resolute  without  sacrificing  the  elasticity 
of  His  sympathy,  and  genial  without  condescend- 
ing to  be  the  weakly  accomplice  of  moral  mis- 
chief and  weakness.  He  pursues  and  exposes 
the  latent  evil  of  the  human  heart  through  all  the 
mazes  of  its  unrivaled  deceitfulness  without  sully- 
ing His  own  purity,  and  without  forfeiting  the 
"Strong  belief  in  the  present  capacity  of  every 
human  being  for  goodness.  He  knows  what  is 
in  man,  and  yet,  with  this  knowledge,  not  only 
does  not  despair  of  humanity,  but  respects  it  and 
-enthusiastically  loves  it"  (Liddon,  The Divi7iity  of 
Our  Lord,  p.  171). 

The  significance  of  the  universality  of  the 
character  of  Christ  cannot  be  overestimated. 
^'  The  more  closely  He  is  drawn  to  other  worlds, 
the  more  fresh  and  susceptible  is  He  to  the 
humanities  of  this.  The  little  child  is  an  image 
of  gladness  which  His  heart  leaps  forth  to  em- 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  1 25 

brace.  The  wedding,  the  feast,  and  the  funeral 
have  each  their  cords  of  sympathy  in  His  bosom. 
At  the  wedding  He  is  clothed  in  congratula- 
tions, at  the  feast  in  doctrine,  at  the  funeral  in 
tears  ;  but  no  miser  was  ever  drawn  to  his  money 
with  stronger  desire  than  He  to  worlds  above. 
Men  undertake  to  be  spiritual  and  they  become 
ascetic  ;  or,  endeavoring  to  hold  a  liberal  view  of 
ihe  comforts  and  pleasures  of  society,  they  are 
soon  buried  in  the  world  and  slaves  to  its  fash- 
ions ;  or,  holding  a  scrupulous  watch  to  keep  out 
every  particular  sin,  they  become  legal  and  fall 
out  of  liberty ;  or,  charmed  with  the  noble  and 
heavenly  liberty,  they  run  to  negligence  and  irre- 
sponsible living:  so  the  earnest  become  violent, 
the  fervent  fanatical,  the  gentle  waver,  the  firm 
turn  bigots,  the  liberal  grow  lax,  the  benevolent 
ostentatious.  Poor  human  infirmity  can  hold 
nothing  steady.  Where  the  pivot  of  righteousness 
is  broken,  the  scales  must  needs  shde  off  their 
balance.  Indeed,  it  is  one  of  the  most  diflficult 
things  which  a  cultivated  Christian  can  attempt, 
only  to  sketch  a  theoretic  view  of  character  in  its 
true  justness  and  proportion,  so  that  a  little  more 
study  or  a  little  more  self-experience  will  not  re- 
quire him  to  modify  it ;  and  yet  the  character  of 
Christ  is  never  modified  even  by  a  shade  of  recti- 
fication. It  is  one  and  the  same  throughout. 
He  makes  no  improvements,  prunes  no  extrav- 
agances, returns  from  no  eccentricities.  The  bal- 
ance of  His  character  is  never  disturbed  or  re- 
adjusted, and  the  astounding  assumption  on  which 
it  is  based  is  never  shaken  even  by  a  suspicion 
that  He  falters  in  it "  (Bushnell,  The  Character 
of  Jesus ^  pp.  21,  22). 

Such  a  rounded  and  complete  character  can 
be  explained  only  as  the  Evangelist  John  explains 


126  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

it.  He  to  whom  it  belonged  was  the  love  of 
God  incarnate.  Such  a  character  could  spring 
only  from  a  love  "  that  could  enter  into  all  the 
distinctions  of  human  life  ordained  of  God,  and 
feel  sympathy  and  compassion  for  them  all,  and 
at  the  same  time  could  rise  above  them  and 
enfold  all  humanity  in  its  wide  embrace — a  love 
resting  with  confidence  in  God,  and  at  the  same 
time  prompting  to  ceaseless  activity  on  behalf  of 
men ;  in  itself  free  and  independent,  and  at  the 
same  time  givhig  itself  as  a  ministering  servant 
to  all.  It  imparts  strength  to  do  and  to  endure. 
It  bears  the  stamp  equally  of  majesty  and  hu- 
mihty  on  its  consecrated  brow.  It  is  this  love 
that  impresses  on  all  that  flows  from  Jesus  the 
character  of  religion,  and  elevates  what  we  call 
moral  to  the  level  of  hohness.  Hence  it  is  that 
while  in  Jesus  piety  never  obtrudes  itself,  yet 
everything  that  He  did  becomes  in  His  hands 
an  expression  and  sign  of  piety ;  hence,  more- 
over, the  whole  manifestation  of  Jesus  does  not 
convey  to  us  the  idea  of  a  character  merely 
religious,  or  possessing  only  the  highest  moral 
qualities,  but  rather  of  morahty  and  religion  in 
perfect  combination — in  a  word,  the  idea  of 
holiness.  The  character  of  the  Lord  Jesus  pre- 
sents to  us  the  harmony  of  a  life  which,  in  action 
as  well  as  in  suffering  [in  all  the  traits  of  its  per- 
fectly balanced  beauty],  was  ever  equally  pene- 
trated with  the  Spirit  of  God,  which  has  its 
source  in  the  perfect  love  of  God,  and  realized 
itself  in  the  highest  love  to  man,  and  in  an  entire 
self-sacrifice  for  the  salvation  of  the  human  race." 
He  was,  as  Hase  strikingly  describes  Him,  "  the 
harmony  of  all  powers  and  capacities,  the  perfect 
love  of  God  represented  in  purest  humanity." 
"Truly  we   may  say,**  continues   Ullmann   (to 


TRAITS    OF    HIS    CHARACTER  1 27 

whom  we  are  indebted  for  so  much  that  has  been 
helpful  in  this  chapter  and  the  preceding),  "  with 
one  now  glorified,  who  made  the  portrait  of  Jesus 
his  deep  and  lifelong  study,  *  For  the  very  idea 
of  such  a  character  one  might  well  let  himself  be 
branded  or  broken  on  the  wheel;  and  the  man 
who  would  laugh  or  mock  at  it  is  certainly  mad. 
He  whose  heart  is  in  the  right  place  must  even 
lie  low  in  the  dust,  and  worship,  and  rejoice.' 
Unquestionably  the  moral  image  of  Jesus,  even 
if  regarded  as  nothing  more  than  an  idea,  is  the 
noblest  and  dearest  possession  of  humanity ;  a 
thing,  surely,  for  which  a  man  might  be  willing 
to  live  or  to  die.  For  this  idea  is  the  noblest  to 
which,  in  religion  or  in  morals,  the  mind  of  man 
has  ever  attained.  It  is  the  crown  and  glory  of 
the  race ;  it  is  the  holy  place  in  which  the  moral 
consciousness  may  find  refuge  from  the  corruption 
of  every-day  hfe.  The  man  who  would  know- 
ingly stain  or  becloud  this  idea  would  be  a  blas- 
phemer against  the  majesty  of  the  divinely  be- 
gotten human  spirit,  in  its  fairest  and  purest 
manifestation"  (Ullmann,  The  Smless7iess  of  Jesus, 
PP-  77)78).  All  other  manifestations  are  marked 
by  flaw  and  failure — 

"  But  Thee,  but  Thee,  O  Sovereign  Seer  of  Time, 
But  Thee,  O  poet's  Poet,  wisdom's  Tongue, 
But  Thee,  O  man's  best  Man,  O  love's  be§t  Love, 
O  perfect  Life  in  perfect  labor  writ, 
O  all  men's  Comrade,  Servant,  King,  or  Priest, — 
What  if  or  yet,  what  mole,  what  flaw,  what  lapse, 
What  least  defect  or  shadow  of  defect, 
W^hat  rumor,  tattled  by  an  enemy. 
Of  inference  loose,  what  lack  of  grace, 
Even  in  torture's  grasp,  or  sleep's  or  death's, — 
Oh,  what  amiss  may  I  forgive  in  Thee, 
Jesus,  good  Paragon,  Thou  Crystal  Christ?" 

And  now  for  all  this,  the  balance  of  His  char- 


128  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

acter,  its  perfectness,  His  holiness,  His  fullness 
of  divine  love,  His  strength.  His  beauty,  we 
must  supply  some  account.  Are  these  human? 
If  so,  where  are  they  found  elsewhere?  Their 
absence  cannot  be  due  to  the  absence  of  need 
for  them.  Repeat  them  if  they  are  human.  If 
not,  we  must  repeat  them  still.  It  is  hfe's  one 
work,  God's  supreme  will. 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM    BY 

THE  DIFFERENT  RELATIONS  INTO 

WHICH  HE  CAME 


i«9 


IV 


THE  TESTIMONY  BORNE  TO  HIM  BY  THE  DIFFER- 
ENT   RELATIONS    INTO    WHICH    HE    CAME 

I.   The  testimo7iy  of  need  to  His  power  to  supply.^ 

If  the  representations  of  the  Gospels  as  to 
Christ's  abihty  and  readiness  to  give  help  and 
rehef  to  those  in  need  are  true,  they  are  perfectly 
expHcable.  But  if  they  are  not  true,  the  detail, 
exphcitness,  and  sober  earnestness  of  their  narra- 
tion, and  the  confidence  reposed  in  them  by 
multitudes  of  unsuperstitious  men,  are  inexpli- 
cable. 

According  to  these  representations,  physical 
sickness  fled  to  Him  for  rehef  (Luke  vi.  17-19). 
Moral  enslavements  and  mental  disorders  sought 
His  aid  (Matt.  xvii.  14).  Fathers  sought  Him 
for  the  sake  of  their  sons,  and  mothers  for  the 
restoration  of  their  daughters  (Matt.  xv.  22). 
Devils,  and  men  who  gave  every  evidence  of 
being  on  more  intimate  terms  with  devils  than  is 
beneficial  for  sane  and  balanced  men,  acknow- 
ledged the  fascination  of  His  control  over  them 
(Mark  i.  24 ;  Luke  viii.  28).  His  nearness 
brought  a  strange  hope  to  the  bhnd,  a  ray  of 
light  that  deepened  into  a  stream  and  a  flood 
(Mark  x.  46,  47).  A  favorable  attitude  on  His 
131 


132  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

part  toward  a  blind  man's  plea  is  construed  at 
once  by  the  multitude  as  a  sign  of  promise,  an 
occasion  of  congratulation  to  the  blind  man 
(Mark  x.  49).  Masters  sought  Him  for  their 
sen^ants'  sakes  (Luke  vii.  3).  He  was  the  Mecca 
of  all  loving  hearts  desiring  life  and  healing  for 
their  friends  (Mark  i.  32,  ;^^).  So  great  was  His 
reputed  power  that  men  asked  only  the  privilege 
of  laying  a  trembling  iinger  on  the  hem  of  His 
garment,  or  of  catching  for  an  instant  the  tassel  of 
His  mantle  (Mark  vi.  56  ;  Luke  viii.  44).  There 
WSiS  no  disease  so  deadly  or  hopeless  that  they 
hesitated  to  bring  it  to  Him  (Matt.  iv.  24).  No 
one  stayed  away  through  fear  that  He  would 
refuse  or  that  His  power  was  exhausted.  Deaf 
and  dumb  men  were  led  to  Him  (Mark  vii.  32). 
Men  blind  from  their  birth  (John  ix.  i),  men 
lunatic  from  childhood  (Mark  ix.  21),  even  the 
dying  (Mark  v.  23)  were  not  regarded  as  beyond 
His  power. 

And  this  opinion  of  Him  was  not  confined  to 
one  community,  where  He  might  have  been  able 
to  deceive  a  few  people  of  the  same  superstitious 
simplicity  by  some  simple  tricks  and  lucky  coin- 
cidences. The  same  reputation  grew  up  about 
Him  everywhere,  through  all  Syria  (Matt.  iv.  24, 
25),  even  in  Jerusalem  and  in  Phenicia  (Luke  vi. 
17  ;  Mark  vii.  24-26). 

Not  to  press  any  other  point,  it  is  clear  that 
Jesus  made  upon  people  this  impression  that  He 
tvas  able  to  do  whatsoever  He  would,  and  that 
He  would  do  all  the  things  which  a  Son  of  God 
would  be  expected  to  do,  and  without  the  domg 
^f  which  we  should  be  obliged  to  doubt  whether 
any  man  was  the  Son  of  God. 

"It  may  sometimes  strike  us  that  the  time 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  1 33 

which  He  devoted  to  actb  of  beneficence  and  the 
relief  of  ordinary  physical  evils  might  have  been 
given  to  works  more  permanently  beneficial  to 
the  race.  Of  His  two  great  gifts,  the  power  over 
nature  and  the  high  moral  wisdom  and  ascen- 
dancy over  men,  the  former  might  be  the  more 
astonishing,  but  it  is  the  latter  which  gives  Him 
His  everlasting  dominion.  He  might  have  left 
to  all  subsequent  ages  more  instruction  if  He  had 
bestowed  less  time  upon  diminishing  slightly  the 
mass  of  evil  around  Him,  and  lengthening  by  a 
span  the  short  fives  of  the  generation  in  which 
He  lived.  The  whole  amount  of  good  done  by 
such  works  of  charity  could  not  be  great,  com- 
pared with  Christ's  powers  of  doing  good;  and 
if  they  were  intended,  as  is  often  supposed, 
merely  as  attestations  of  His  divine  mission,  a 
few  acts  of  the  kind  would  have  served  His  pur- 
pose as  well  as  many.  Yet  we  may  see  that  they 
were  in  fact  the  great  work  of  His  fife  ;  His  biog- 
graphy  may  be  summed  up  in  the  words,  '  He 
went  about  doing  good.'  His  wise  words  were 
secondary  to  His  beneficial  deeds;  the  latter 
were  not  introductory  to  the  former,  but  the 
former  grew  occasionally  and,  as  it  were,  acci- 
dentally out  of  the  latter.  The  explanation  of 
this  is  that  Christ  merely  reduced  to  practice  His 
own  principle.  His  morality  required  that  the 
welfare  and  happiness  of  others  should  not  merely 
be  remembered  as  a  restraint  upon  action,  but 
should  be  made  the  principal  motive  of  action  ; 
and  what  He  preached  in  words  He  preached 
still  more  impressively  and  zealously  in  deeds. 
He  set  the  first  and  greatest  example  of  a  fife 
wholly  governed  and  guided  by  the  passion  of 
humanity  "  [^Ecce  Homo,  pp.  202,  203). 


134  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

II.    The  testimony  of  nature  to  His  right  to  com- 
mand. 

We  are  accustomed  to  come  to  miracles  through 
Christ  rather  than  to  Christ  through  miracles. 
This  course  He  Himself  invites  as  the  highest 
and  truest  (John  xiv.  lo,  ii).  But  it  is  certain 
that  Jesus  is  represented  to  have  wrought  mira- 
cles, signs  in  the  forms  of  time  and  space  of  the 
eternal  and  infinite  hfe  out  of  which  He  came, 
and  which  it  was  His  purpose  to  manifest  to 
men,  that  they  might  be  led  through  them  into 
the  life  which  was  in  Him  and  which  He  was 
(John  XX.  2i);  and  from  these  representations, 
believing  them,  we  may  draw  our  inferences  and 
learn  of  Him.  Whatever  else  the  disciples  may 
have  inferred  from  His  miracles,  they  were  im- 
pressed with  the  peculiar  sympathy  with  nature 
which  they  showed  Him  to  possess  (Mark  iv.  41). 
In  such  sympathy  there  is  nothing  strange  in 
itself  Thoreau  knew  and  was  known  by  nature. 
Other  men  have  entered  into  the  hidden  hfe  of 
the  world  in  what  are  called  "  unnatural "  ways. 
But  the  degree  of  Jesus'  intimacy  with  the  un- 
seen was  so  close,  and  the  extent  of  His  control 
and  power  so  great,  that  nature's  response  to 
Him  becomes  an  enigma  save  on  the  supposition 
of  His  divinity.  ''The  conscious  water  saw  its 
Lord,  and  blushed  "  (John  ii.  7-9). 

Consider  that  Confucius,  Zoroaster,  Sakya 
Muni,  and  Mohammed  claimed  to  work  no 
miracles.  Consider  that  the  miracles  attributed 
to  them  are  puerile,  e.g.,  ''The  moon,  after 
going  seven  times  round  the  Kaaba,  saluted  him 
[Mohammed],  entered  his  right  sleeve,  and,  slip- 
ping out  at  the  left,  split  into  two  halves,  which 
reunited  after  having  retired  to  extreme  east  and 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  1 35 

west."  Then  consider  that  Jesus  claimed  power 
unlimited  (Matt,  xxviii.  i8;  John  xiii.  3),  and 
that  no  miracle  is  attributed  to  Him  which  is  not 
reasonable  and  right,  most  human,  most  divine. 


III.   The  testimony  borne  to  Him  by  His  attitude 
toward  womafi* 

He  admitted  women  to  the  circle  of  His  dis- 
ciples, and  accepted  their  aid  (Luke  viii.  2,  3 ; 
xxiv.  10).  He  wholly  neglected  conventional 
hmitations  in  His  dealing  with  them  (John  iv.  27). 
Talking  with  a  woman  was  against  the  custom 
of  the  doctors.  They  said,  "  A  man  should  not 
salute  a  woman  in  a  public  place,  not  even  his 
own  wife;"  and  that  it  was  "better  that  the 
words  of  the  law  should  be  burned  than  delivered 
to  women."  One  of  the  thanksgivings  in  the 
daily  service  of  the  synagogue  is,  "Blessed  art 
Thou,  O  Lord,  who  hast  not  made  me  a  woman  " 
(Westcott,  Bible  Co7nmentary,  "St.  John's  Gos- 
pel," p.  74). 

He  was  constantly  helpful  to  women  who 
were  in  need  (Luke  xiii.  11).  He  used  them  in 
His  teaching  invariably  as  illustrations  of  noble 
qualities  (Luke  xviii.  1-8),  and  commended  their 
loving  service  of  God  (Luke  xxi.  1-4).  He  took 
some  women  into  the  closest  circle  of  His  friends 
(John  xi.  5).  There  seems  to  have  been  a  long 
and  intimate  friendship  between  Him  and  the 
sisters  of  Lazarus  (Luke  x.  38). 

Women  expressed  their  love  for  Him  and  their 
trust  in  Him  (Mark  xiv.  3;  Luke  vii.  36-50); 
and  at  the  end  women  followed  His  steps  to  the 

*  Cf.  article  by  the  Rev.  George  F.  Greene,  in  Christian 
Thought^  vol.  xi.,  No.  i,  pp.  13-30. 


136  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

cross,  and  chanted  after  Him  their  dirge  of 
lamentation,  recognizing,  many  of  them,  in  Him 
the  Friend  and  Redeemer  of  woman  (Luke  xxiii. 
27).  He  had  treated  them  as  equals  and  given 
them  a  foremost  place  in  His  kingdom. 

This  was  a  new  attitude  toward  woman.  Plato 
represents  a  state  as  wholly  disorganized  where 
slaves  are  disobedient  to  their  masters  and  wives 
are  on  an  equality  with  their  husbands.  Aristotlf 
characterizes  women  as  being  of  a  lower  kind, 
declaring  "  both  a  woman  and  a  slave  may  be 
good,  though  perhaps  of  these  the  one  is  less 
good,  and  the  other  is  wholly  bad."  Socrates 
asks  of  his  friends,  "  Is  there  a  human  being  with 
whom  you  talk  less  than  with  your  wife?  "  Other 
religions  have  slurred  woman.  It  was  given  to 
Buddha  in  his  candidacy  for  the  buddhaship 
that  he  should  never  in  the  great  wheel  of  trans- 
migration be  born  in  hell  or  as  vermin  or  as  a 
woman.  Mohammed's  example  is  an  odorous 
illustration  of  the  influence  of  Mohammedanism. 
*'  A  Voice  from  a  Harem, "  in  the  Nineteefith 
Century  Magazifie,  August,  1890,  cries,  "The 
duty  that  man  owes  to  his  fellow-creature  is 
hardly  ever  mentioned  in  our  rehgion."  "The 
very  heaven  of  the  Koran  is  a  paradise  condi- 
tioned on  the  eternal  degradation  of  woman- 
hood." The  code  of  Manu,  the  highest  reU- 
gious  authority  among  Hindus,  says,  "Women 
have  no  business  with  the  text  of  a  sacred  book." 
A  Brahman  is  to  "  suspend  reading  the  Veda  if  a 
woman  come  in  sight."  "  Though  unobservant 
of  approved  usages,"  it  declares,  "  or  enamoured 
of  another  woman,  or  devoid  of  good  quahties, 
yet  a  husband  must  constantly  be  revered  as  a 
god  by  a  virtuous  wife." 

"sje^t-  TiT/a  sec  ill  OUT  da"  the  *!'^^'**'2/^lw  ^^  ^ 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  I37 

woman's  revolt  against  Christianity  as  the  en- 
slaver of  woman.  In  contrast  with  its  treatment 
Mrs.  Stanton  exclaims,  "The  pages  of  Roman 
history  are  gilded  with  the  honor  shown  to 
woman."  A  strange  court  is  this  to  which  to 
appeal  from  Christianity.  The  censor  Metellus 
once  said  in  the  senate,  "  Could  we  exist  with- 
out wives  at  all,  we  should  all  rid  ourselves  of 
the  plague  they  are  to  us.  Since  nature,  how- 
ever, has  decreed  that  we  cannot  dispense  with 
this  infliction,  let  us  bear  it  manfully,  and  rather 
look  to  the  permanent  conservation  of  the  state 
than  to  our  own  transient  satisfaction."  Liba- 
nius  was  not  struck  with  the  superior  treatment 
of  women  among  the  Romans ;  he  was  amazed 
at  the  character  of  woman  Christianity  had  de- 
veloped. 

"  Of  all  the  odd  fancies  which  have  in  the 
past  thirty  years  seized  upon  enthusiastic  and 
aspiring  women,"  says  the  Spectator^  September 
12,  1 89 1,  "we  know  of  none  so  odd  and  so 
melancholy  as  this  idea,  that  if  only  they  could 
be  rid  of  Christianity  and  its  prejudices,  they 
would  in  some  more  or  less  complete  degree  be 
set  free  from  bondage." 

What  women  are  in  our  Christian  world  Christ 
has  made  them,  and  whatever  they  have  not 
which  they  ought  to  have,  or  are  not  which  they 
ought  to  be,  they  will  secure  or  become  only 
with  His  help  and  through  the  wider  acceptance 
among  men  of  His  teaching  and  will. 

IV.  He  was  free  from  the  superstitions  of  His  time 
and  the  current  distortions  of  the  religious  life. 

He  was  not  participant  in  the  orthodox  Jewish 
prejudice  against  the  Samaritans.    It  is  no  slight 


138  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

thing  for  a  man  to  be  free  from  all  the  race  feuds 
of  his  people,  the  less  shght  if  there  is  religious 
feeling  or  prejudice  involved.  Yet  other  finer 
souls  of  His  day  must  have  shared  this  free  cos- 
mopoHtanism  with  Him.  But  Jesus  breaks  com- 
pletely with  the  current  religious  opinions  and 
judgments  to  which,  the  better  and  more  patriotic 
a  Jew  was,  the  more  he  would  adhere,  from  which 
surely  he  would  separate  last. 

It  is  to  be  held  clearly  in  mind  that  Jesus  was 
not  a  renegade  Jew.  No  charge  was  brought 
against  Him  such  as  was  brought  against  Paul 
(Acts  xxiv.  5,  6).  Indeed,  Pilate  insisted  on  re- 
garding Him  as  the  supreme,  typical  Jew,  and 
would  not  refrain  from  nailing  over  His  cross 
the  title  "  The  King  of  the  Jews  "  ;  and  what  the 
chief  priests  objected  to  was  not  that  He  was  still 
regarded  as  a  thorough  Jew,  but  the  pretension 
of  authority  contained  in  the  inscription  (John 
xix.  21). 

As  a  man  Jesus,  of  course,  was  placed  under 
the  limitations  which  surround  human  nature. 
He  was  a  member  of  a  family  and  a  race,  He 
came  at  a  definite  time  in  history,  and  was  obliged 
to  take  His  place  as  a  member  of  a  nation,  and 
submit  to  a  definite  historical  setting.  He  had  a 
body  with  its  physical  conditions,  a  mind  with  its 
mental  endowments,  disposition,  temperament. 
But  He  was  not  fettered  or  biased  or  cramped 
by  these,  or  warped  in  notion  and  judgment  and 
ideal. 

He  was  free  (a)  from  current  inadequate  con- 
ceptions of  providence.  When  He  was  speak- 
ing once  to  many  thousands,  who  had  gathered 
together  insomuch  that  they  trode  one  upon  an- 
other (Luke  xii.  i),  certain  people  who  were  pres- 
ent and  had  just  heard  the  news  excitedly  told 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  1 39 

Him  of  some  wretched  murders  committed  by- 
Pilate,  expecting  doubtless  that  He  would  wel- 
come the  tidings  as  illustrative  of  the  truth  of 
judgment  of  which  He  had  been  speaking.  The 
communication  was  made  with  the  idea  that  the 
Galileans  who  had  been  murdered  were  great 
sinners,  and  that  their  violent  death  was  what 
men  would  call  a  judgment  upon  them.  "  Do 
you  poor  children  of  superstition,"  said  Jesus, 
"  think  that  because  of  this  awful  calamity  which 
befell  them  they  were  specially  great  sinners?  I 
tell  you.  Nay :  but,  except  ye  repent,  ye  shall  all 
likewise  perish  "  (Luke  xiii.  1-5  ;  cf.  John  ix.  1-5). 

{b)  From  distorted  notions  of  Sabbath  obser- 
vance. On  a  Sabbath  day  He  healed  in  one  of 
their  synagogues  a  woman  who  had  a  spirit  of 
infirmity  eighteen  years,  was  bound  together,  and 
could  in  no  wise  hft  herself  up.  The  ruler  of 
the  synagogue  was  outraged  at  this  desecration 
of  the  day.  He  did  not  dare  to  rebuke  Jesus 
directly,  but  he  struck  at  Him  over  the  backs 
of  the  people.  Jesus  answered,  addressing  His 
words  to  the  class  of  dead  formahsts  of  which 
this  ruler  was  the  representative,  "  Ye  hypocrites! 
you  merely  pretend  to  defend  the  law  of  the 
Sabbath  in  order  to  arouse  enmity  against  Me. 
Shall  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  allow  you  to 
save  a  beast's  hfe  or  promote  its  comfort,  and 
forbid  the  deliverance  and  the  healing  of  men?  " 
(Luke  xiii.  10-17). 

{c)  From  materiahstic  notic.ns  of  worship.  The 
woman  by  Jacob's  well  in  Samaria  asked  Him 
whether  Jerusalem  or  Gerizim  was  the  proper 
place  of  worship.  He  brushed  aside  at  once  the 
rival  claims  of  the  two  temples  by  showing  the 
Spirit  of  truth,  the  new  revelation  of  a  universal 
religion,  high  and  clear  of  all  superstitious  quar- 


140  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

rels  as  iv^  place  and  form  of  worship,  a  religion  of 
spirit  contrasted  with  the  literahsm  of  Judaism, 
a  religion  of  truth  contrasted  with  the  falsehood 
of  Samaritanism  (John  iv.  20-24). 

The  Sermon  on  the  Mount  is  full  of  illustra- 
tions of  Jesus'  freedom,  His  bold  emancipation 
from  all  the  narrow,  enslaving,  literahzing  views 
of  His  day.  His  words  cut  constantly  across 
current  opinions.  He  gives  a  new  interpretation 
of  the  command  not  to  kill  (Matt.  v.  21-26). 
He  strikes  at  current  views  of  divorce  (Matt.  v. 
27-32),  He  assails  the  prevalent  forms  of  re- 
ligiosity and  hypocrisy  (Matt.  vi.). 

In  parable  and  open  statement  He  held  up  to 
scorn  the  Pharisaic  narrowness  and  suspicious- 
ness (Mark  xii.  10-12).  His  perfect  freedom 
from  bonded  traditionalism  the  Pharisees  made  a 
charge  against  Him  ;  and  He  replied  by  asserting 
His  contempt  for  their  formal  and  lifeless  man- 
nerisms and  mummeries,  by  which  they  made 
clean  hands  a  substitute  for  clean  hearts,  and  the 
altar  of  devotion  a  cover  for  covetousness  (Mark 
vii.  1—23).  He  constantly  asserted  reality  as 
against  tradition  (Mark  vii.  8,  13),  and  denounced 
all  substitution  of  profession  and  pretense  for 
life  and  vision  as  hypocrisy  and  vanity  (Mark  vii. 

6,7). 

The  twenty-third  chapter  of  Matthew  is  an- 
other just  such  proclamation  of  freedom,  of  life, 
of  protest  against  sepulchers  lying  over  the  gates 
of  life,  and  spiritless  men  having  stewardship  of 
the  revelation  and  appeal  of  God.  The  Jews 
came  to  speak  of  Him  at  last  as  Ehas  (Luke  ix. 
8),  indicating  thereby  their  conception  of  Him 
as  a  great  religious  and  moral  reformer,  a  stern 
rebuker  of  vice,  and  a  condemner  of  the  deaden- 
ing fashions  of  the  day  (i  Kin^s  xviii.  18;  xxi. 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  I4I 

19,  20  ;  2  Kings  i.  8).  Yet  Jesus  was  a  Jew,  and 
acted  as  such  (Luke  xxii.  7,  8),  and  was  appealed 
to  as  a  Jew,  and  responded  to  such  appeals  (Luke 
vii.  4-6). 

Christ's  superiority  is  revealed  in  this  superior- 
ity to  His  time,  its  views  and  hmitations.  "  Lord 
Bacon,  a  man  of  the  highest  intellectual  training, 
was  harmed  by  superstitions  which  were  too  child- 
ish to  be  named  with  respect,  and  which  clung 
to  him  despite  of  all  his  philosophy  even  to  his 
death.  .  .  .  While  Socrates,  one  of  the  greatest 
and  purest  of  human  souls,  a  man  who  had  at- 
tained to  many  worthy  conceptions  of  God  hid- 
den from  his  idolatrous  countrymen,  is  constrained 
to  sacrilice  a  cock  to  ^Esculapius,  the  uneducated 
Jesus  hves  and  dies  superior  to  every  superstition 
of  His  time ;  believing  nothing  because  it  is  be- 
lieved, respecting  nothing  because  it  is  sanctified 
by  custom  (Matt,  xxiii.  16-23).  Even  in  the 
closing  scene  of  His  life  we  see  His  learned  and 
priestly  associates  refusing  to  go  into  the  judg- 
ment-hall of  Caiaphas,  lest  they  should  be  cere- 
monially defiled  and  disqualified  for  the  feast 
(John  xviii.  28),  though  detained  by  no  scruples 
as  regards  the  instigation  of  a  murder!  While 
He,  on  the  other  hand,  pitying  their  delusions, 
prays  for  them  from  the  cross,  '  Father,  forgive 
them  ;  for  they  know  not  what  they  do  '  "  (Bush- 
nell,  The  Character  of  Jestis^  p.  52). 

Yet  Jesus  does  not  swing  over  to  the  other  ex- 
treme and  boast  Himself  an  untrammeled  liberal. 
He  did  not  make  capital  for  a  destructive  move- 
ment out  of  His  advance  beyond  the  narrowness 
of  His  time  and  nation  and  His  freedom  from  it. 
He  bade  men  whom  He  had  helped  to  go  to  the 
Temple  and  act  as  good  Jews.  Least  of  all  did 
He  ever  destroy  without  offering  to  reconstruct, 


142  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

or  disparage  the  past  and  His  contemporaries 
that  His  own  name  and  place  might  be  more  con- 
spicuous. He  was  free  from  the  evil  and  the 
imperfection  of  His  time  that  He  might  show 
in  Himself  the  good  and  the  perfection  of  all 
time. 

V.  He  called  forth  the  i7is  tine  live  obedie?ice  of  others. 

As  a  teacher  of  right  and  duty,  He  of  course 
emphasized  obedience  in  His  teaching  (Luke 
xvii.  7~:^o;;  and  the  greatest  illustration  of  faith 
He  found  was  in  a  centurion  who  assumed  His 
perfect  power  and  right  to  exact  obedience  even 
of  the  hidden  forces  of  hfe  and  death  (Matt.  viii. 

He  commanded  discipleship  on  all,  conceiving 
of  it  as  a  personal  allegiance  to  Himself.  He 
assumed  that  the  most  right,  most  natural,  most 
proper  course  was  for  men  to  yield  complete 
obedience  to  Him,  and  they  instinctively  obeyed. 
Only  two  declined  His  call  when  it  was  person- 
ally presented  to  them  (Matt,  xix,  21  ;  Luke  ix. 
59),  and  in  each  of  these  cases  His  words  were 
rather  tests  of  character  than  definite  commands. 
To  Andrew  and  Peter  He  called  over  the  sea, 
"Come  ye  after  Me"  (Matt.  iv.  18,  19).  To 
Matthew  He  said,  "  Come,  follow  Me,"  and  "Fol- 
low Me  "  to  PhiHp  (Matt.  ix.  9  ;  John  i.  43).  And 
all  these  rose  and  followed,  fishermen  leaving 
their  nets,  and  the  tax-gatherer  his  table  with  its 
toll.  Obedience  He  regarded  as  the  character- 
istic mark  and  test  of  discipleship  (John  x.  27  ; 
xiv.  15;  XV.  14). 

He  exacted  obedience,  whatever  the  cost. 
Wealth  might  not  stand  in  the  way  (Matt.  xix. 
21) ;  sure  struggle  and  bitterness  might  not  deter 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  143 

(Luke  xii.  51-53);  neither  father  nor  mother, 
wife  nor  children,  business  nor  love,  might  have 
precedence  over  His  call  (Matt.  x.  37  ;  Luke  ix. 
59,  62;  xiv.  15-24). 

His  disciples  always  obeyed  His  instructions 
absolutely.  They  sometimes  raised  questions. 
Peter  suggested  that  it  was  not  hkely  they  would 
catch  any  fish  if  they  let  down  their  net  once 
more  after  a  fruitless  night's  work  (Luke  v.  4,  5), 
but  he  obeyed  without  delay.  The  disciples 
pointed  out  that  the  journey  to  Bethany  to  the 
home  of  Lazarus  would  involve  great  personal 
risk  and  danger,  but  their  thought  was  of  Jesus, 
not  of  themselves ;  and  when  they  saw  Jesus  was 
bent  on  going  they  thought  of  no  other  course  of 
action  than  accompanying  Him  (John  xi.  8,  16). 
They  obeyed  the  most  astonishing  commands. 
They  fell  in  at  once  with  His  plan  for  feeding 
the  five  thousand  when  there  was  nothing  in  sight 
with  which  to  feed  them  (Luke  ix.  14-16).  Two 
of  them  went  to  prepare  the  last  supper  on  the 
chance  of  meeting  a  man  with  a  pitcher  of  water 
who  would  give  them  his  house  (Luke  xxii.  8-13) ; 
and  two  went  to  find  a  colt  for  His  use  in  the 
triumphal  entry  on  the  strength  of  His  assur- 
ance that  they  would  find  one  tied  in  a  certain 
village  which  the  owner  would  allow  them  to 
take  (Luke  xix.  30-35).  Simon  actually  went 
down  to  the  sea  to  catch  a  fish  on  the  promise 
of  Jesus  that  he  would  find  a  coin  in  its  mouth 
(Matt.  xvii.  27). 

He  always  issued  His  orders  as  one  born  to 
command.  Ten  lepers  cried  to  Him  for  help, 
and  He  gave  them  healing  with  a  word  of  com- 
mand (Luke  xvii.  12-14).  He  bore  Himself  in 
the  Temple  as  a  King  or  a  King's  Son,  and  all 
men  obeyed  (Markxi.  15-17).    The  chief  priests 


144  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

and  scribes  were  afraid  of  Him  (Mark  xi.  i8). 
He  spoke  constantly  in  the  imperative  mood: 
"  Go  tell  John  "  to  John's  disciples  (Matt.  xi.  4) ; 
"  Tell  no  man  "  to  His  own  (Matt.  xvii.  9) ;  "  Re- 
turn to  thy  house  "  to  the  healed  man  among  the 
Gerasenes  (Luke  viii.  39) ;  "Abide  ye  here,  and 
watch,"  to  His  chosen  friends  (Mark  xiv.  34). 
And  He  closed  His  life  with  some  stupendous 
orders  (Matt,  xxviii.  18-20;  Mark  xvi.  15). 

For  these  great  orders  He  had  prepared  them 
by  His  training.  During  His  life  He  had  sent 
them  out  with  the  divine  sanctions  at  their  com- 
mand (Matt.  x.  12-15)  He  bade  the  apostles 
go  out  on  an  untried  errand,  for  which  we  should 
think  special  preparation  would  have  been  abso- 
lutely necessary,  with  all  such  preparation  ex- 
pressly forbidden,  but  with  instructions  to  carry 
the  threats  and  the  pleas  of  God ;  and  they  went 
obediently.  The  Seventy  were  sent  on  even 
more  trying  conditions  (Luke  x.  1-16).  They 
probably  went  before  Jesus  into  Samaria.  Now 
the  more  scrupulous  Jews  would  not  eat  with 
Samaritans,  saying,  "He  that  eateth  a  morsel 
belonging  to  a  Samaritan  is  as  though  he  had 
eaten  swine's  flesh."  Jesus  bade  the  Seventy  to 
eat  what  was  set  before  them  (Luke  x.  7).  They 
went  forth  in  obedience,  attempted  to  use  the 
power  given  to  them,  and  reported  the  results 
with  unrestrained  joy  (Luke  x.  17). 

Yet  Jesus  was  never  regarded  as  dictatorial  or 
imperious.  He  drew  men  (John  xii.  32  ;  John  iii. 
13-17  ;  Mark  ii.  13).  His  teaching  commanded 
the  confidence  of  men;  His  love  warmly  at- 
tracted them.  No  one,  therefore,  resented  His 
commands.  Every  one  naturally  assented. 
Though  He  treated  those  who  came  to  Him  as 
belonging  to  Him,  and  so  spoke  of  them  (John 


THE  TESTIMONY  BORNE  TO  HIM     145 

xvii.  6  ;  xviii.  36),  and  assumed  toward  them  a 
supreme  authority  and  exceptionless  superiority, 
no  one  seemed  surprised  or  offended.  Objec- 
tions to  Him  seem  to  have  been  based  on  His 
origin  and  family,  and  on  preconceptions,  mis- 
interpretations, or  misrepresentations,  which  He 
was  at  no  pains  to  remove  unless  they  were  enter- 
tained by  men  who  sincerely  desired  hght.  Jesus 
Himself  was  ever  the  natural  leader  and  King  of 
men.  No  one  ever  asked  His  disciples  why  they 
had  Him  for  their  Master,  though  they  often 
inquired  as  to  the  reasons  for  His  conduct  (Matt, 
ix.  11). 

His  disciples  addressed  Him  generally  as 
"  Master,"  and  He  was  pleased  with  this  title, 
and  encouraged  its  use.  "  Ye  call  Me,  Master, 
and,  Lord,"  He  said :  "  and  ye  say  well ;  for  so  I 
am  "  (John  xiii.  13).  A  few  days  before  He  had 
instructed  them  not  to  call  one  another  "  Rabbi," 
or  to  allow  others  to  call  them  by  this  title ; 
"for,"  He  said,  "one  is  your  teacher,  and  all  ye 
are  brethren.  Neither  be  ye  called  masters  :  for 
one  is  your  master,  even  the  Christ  "  (Matt,  xxiii. 
8, 1  o).  Though  He  was  the  very  servant  and  slave 
of  men,  He  was  yet  their  Lord  and  Emperor. 

VI.    The  impressio7is  He  produced  upon  others. 

I.  Admiration  for  His  goodness  and  purity. 
One  of  His  companions  in  death  expressed  to 
the  other  his  conviction  as  to  Christ's  innocence. 
This  was  a  testimony  wrung  from  a  sufferer.  A 
sufferer's  judgment  of  goodness  is  valuable.  Fear 
of  God  at  such  times  is  natural,  but  not  a  favor- 
able judgment  of  man  (Luke  xxiii.  40,  41).  The 
centurion  whose  special  duty  it  was  to  watch  the 
fulfilment  of  the  sentence,  and  who  was  accord- 


146  THE    MAN    CHRIST    TESUS 

ingly  stationed  immediately  in  front  of  the  cross, 
where  he  heard  the  last  word  of  Jesus— evidently 
not  an  inarticulate  cry,  but  a  word  full  of  mean- 
ing—  "It  is  finished.  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I 
commend  My  spirit,"  recognized  in  the  voice  and 
the  whole  bearing  of  Jesus  a  personal  manifesta- 
tion of  character,  and  responded  to  it,  declaring 
aloud,  in  devout  praise  of  God,  '*  Certainly  this 
was  a  righteous  man,  God's  very  Son "  (Luke 
xxiii.  47  ;  Matt,  xxvii.  54). 

2.  Astonishment.  Men  were  astonished  at 
His  originality  and  authority  (Matt.  vii.  28),  at 
the  fact  that  His  origin  and  training  would  not 
account  for  Him  (Matt.  xii.  23  ;  xiii.  54-57),  at 
His  sagacity  and  vigorous  enthusiasm  (Mark  vi. 
2),  at  the  unusual  things  He  showed  them  (Luke 
V.  26),  at  the  majesty  of  God  as  it  was  displayed 
in  Him  (Luke  ix.  43).  Their  astonishment  at 
times  knew  no  bounds  (Mark  vii.  37),  rising  into 
eager,  excited  demonstration  (Mark  ix.  15)  even 
though  He  had  wrought  no  immediate  miracles 
to  arouse  it.  His  very  appearance  at  times  was 
an  amazement  to  them. 

3.  Dumb  wonderment  and  marveHng.  He 
would  patiently  endure  a  long  controversy,  calmly 
meeting  each  fresh  assault,  and  then  He  would 
^veep  everything  before  Him — the  people  struck 
dumb  by  His  honest  subtlety.  His  keen  dialectic. 
His  genuine  candor  (Luke  xiv.  6  ;  Matt.  xxii.  46). 
Sometimes  the  wonderment  would  break  forth 
into  open  admiration  at  the  shrewdness  of  His 
disputation  (Mark  xii.  37)  or  the  culture  of  His 
discourse  (John  vii.  15),  as  well  as  at  the  splendid 
victories  He  won  over  sickness  (Luke  xi.  14). 

4.  Shame.  In  a  synagogue  in  Perea  the  ruler 
of  the  synagogue  and  his  supporters  were  put 
to  shame  by  the  defense  which  Jesus  gave  of 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  I47 

His  conduct  in  healing  a  woman  on  the  Sabbath 
(Luke  xiii.  17).  His  purity  and  sincerity  put  to 
shame  impurity  and  insincerity  (John  viii.  9). 

5.  Hope  and  confidence.  The  nearness  of 
^esus  was  counted  an  opportunity  for  blessing 
and  help  not  to  be  lost  (Luke  xviii.  37,  38). 
Wherever  He  went  rumors  were  spread  abroad 
of  His  illimitable  ability  to  aid  (Luke  iv.  36,  37), 
and  men  counted  Him  at  least  a  risen  John  or  a 
returned  Elijah,  or  one  of  the  old  prophets  come 
back  to  earth  (Luke  ix.  18,  19). 

6.  Fear  and  hatred.  In  the  country  of  the 
Gerasenes  the  people,  holden  with  a  great  terror 
at  the  sight  of  the  untamable  man  sane  and  quiet 
at  Jesus'  feet,  and  recalling  the  fearful  sight  of 
their  maddened  herds,  besought  Him  to  go  away 
out  of  their  country  (Luke  viii.  37).  In  the 
hearts  of  others  His  loving  help,  calling  even  the 
dead  back  to  life,  and  His  comfort  of  the  deso- 
late, produced  a  solemn  and  awful  fear  (Luke 
vii.  16).  Among  others  His  very  goodness  pro- 
voked prejudice  and  hatred  and  ill  will,  which 
became  thus  a  testimony  to  His  true  nobility 
(Luke  vi.  11  ;  Mark  iii.  i,  2,  6).  His  foes  sank 
their  minor  differences,  and  combined  in  the  face 
of  their  common  enemy,  who  upheld  spiritual 
truth  in  opposition  to  the  secularist  faction  of  the 
Herodians  and  the  ceremonial  formahty  of  the 
Pharisaic  party  of  tradition.  During  all  the  last 
year  of  His  life  His  enemies  plotted  to  compass 
His  death.  His  assertion  of  the  spirituality  of 
the  uses  to  which  He  felt  the  Temple  should  be 
put  (Mark  xi.  18),  His  declaration  of  His  com- 
plete obedience  to  God  (John  vii.  28-30),  the 
raising  of  Lazarus  (John  xi.  53) — these,  and 
much  else  about  Him  in  character  and  conduct 
which  we  deem  most  admirable,  only  provoked 


145  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

the  wrath  and  hatred  of  the  leaders  of  the  peo- 
pie,  and  drove  them  on  to  their  fatal  rejection  of 
Israel's  one  hope. 

7.  But  on  both  friends  and  foes  He  exercised 
a  strong,  fascinating  influence.  Going  up  to 
Jerusalem,  the  disciples  who  followed  Him,  as 
He  walked  on  ahead  with  His  face  set  like  a  flint 
toward  the  Holy  Cit}^  where  He  was  to  be  cruci- 
fied, looked  at  one  another  in  amazement,  while 
the  people  who  came  after  them  were  filled  with 
a  strange  fear.  They  were  moved  by  the  thought 
of  the  approaching  crisis  and  the  solemn  words 
He  had  spoken  of  the  persecutions  which  were  to 
be  a  part  of  the  disciples'  Hfe ;  but  it  was  Christ 
Himself,  with  His  tense,  white  face,  and  the  far- 
away look  as  of  one  who  saw  already  the  land 
that  is  afar  off,  that  drew  them  after  Him  with 
strange  fascination  (Mark  x.  32).  They  left  all 
for  Him  (Luke  xviii.  28) ;  they  were  grieved  at 
His  gloomy  forebodings,  but  they  could  not 
leave  Him  (Matt.  xvii.  22,  23).  He  cast  a  spell 
of  fascination  over  His  foes  as  well  (John  vii.  46). 
The  people  generally  were  completely  under  His 
influence  if  He  had  wished  to  exert  it  so.  The 
complaint  of  the  jealous  zeal  of  the  disciples  of 
John  shows  what  an  attraction  He  possessed 
(John  iii.  26).  The  world  went  after  Him,  de- 
clared the  rulers  (John  xii.  19).  The  first  time 
this  influence  was  brought  to  bear  upon  men  they 
yielded  to  it.  The  first  disciples  were  made  with- 
out effort,  without  miracles,  without  teaching,  by 
the  practical  interpretation  of  a  phrase,  "  Behold, 
the  Lamb  of  God!"  and  the  inner  comprehen- 
sion of  a  character  felt  from  the  first  moment  as 
a  fascination  and  a  satisfaction  (John  i.  35-51). 
At  His  first  words  to  them  these  men  put  aside 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  I49 

their  own  aspirations  and  preconceptions,  and 
cast  themselves  upon  Him,  wilHng  to  wait  His 
time,  and  trusting  till  He  should  show  Himself 
more  clearly. 

8.  Many  loved  Him  with  a  deep  and  consum- 
ing love.  The  first  missionary  to  the  Gentiles, 
the  man  whom  Jesus  had  healed  in  the  country 
of  the  Gerasenes,  could  not  go  away  from  His 
presence,  but  sat  at  His  feet  drinking  in  eagerly 
the  words  of  his  great  friend  (Mark  v.  15,  18). 
In  His  love  Jesus  had  a  greater  mission  for  the 
man,  and  He  sent  him  ahead  of  Him  to  prepare 
the  way  for  His  later  work  (Mark  vii.  31  ;  viii. 
10).  Even  when  clinging  to  Jesus  meant  peril 
and  perhaps  death,  men  followed  (John  xi.  16). 
Some  could  not  summon  sufficient  courage  to 
pronounce  openly  for  Jesus  during  His  hfe,  but 
the  thought  of  His  suffering  and  agony  drew 
even  these  out  into  open  association  with  His 
cause  (John  xix.  38,  39). 

Regarding  these  impressions  three  things 
should  be  said : 

(i)  Observe  that  the  people  and  the  rulers 
regarded  Jesus  with  no  uncritical  spirit.  There 
was  careful  weighing  of  His  claims,  and  in  each 
case  the  judgment,  when  considered  in  all  its 
lights  and  bearings,  whatever  it  may  have  been 
in  itself,  was  a  testimony  to  His  greatness  and 
goodness.  Close  and  earnest  arguments  arose 
about  Him.  The  facts  of  His  life  and  character 
were  rigidly  scrutinized,  and  eager  factions  were 
at  least  partially  convinced  that  they  must  differ- 
entiate Him  from  men  (John  vii.  12,  40-47  ;  x. 
19-21).  The  swell  of  other  influences  overcame 
them,  but  what  claims  of  His  were  even  tempo- 
rarily acknowledged  by  a  few  were  acknowledged 


150  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

not  blindly,  unless  in  the  case  of  some  of  the  Gal- 
ilean visitors  at  the  last  Passover,  but  after  study 
and  scrutiny. 

(2)  The  impression  He  made  and  the  position 
He  was  accorded  were  due  to  the  influence  of 
His  character,  His  words  and  deeds.  No  ex- 
ternal circumstances  played  into  His  hands.  Even 
conditions  which  the  people  found  fault  with  His 
Messianic  claims  for  not  having  fulfilled  were 
met  by  Him,  though,  through  the  ignorance  of 
the  people  and  His  neglect  to  inform  them.  He 
derived  no  advantage  from  their  fulfilment.  What 
Jesus  got,  therefore,  in  the  way  of  acknowledged 
superiority  and  uniqueness  He  got,  not  because 
of  fortunate  combinations  of  circumstances,  but 
in  spite  of  the  lack  of  such  advantages  as  He  was 
properly  entitled  to. 

(3)  Moreover,  He  was  quite  careless  as  to  what 
the  popular  opinion  of  Him  was,  or  what  feehngs 
He  aroused.  He  often  went  off  quietly  to  pray 
after  some  of  the  mighty  works  which  left  men 
aghast,  scarcely  beheving  the  evidence  of  their 
senses  (Luke  v.  16).  He  kept  His  personality 
above  His  acts.  He  knew  that  it  was  more  im- 
portant that  the  Son  of  God  should  be  true  to 
His  divine  nature  than  that  the  people  should 
acknowledge  that  He  was  the  Son  of  God ;  yet 
this  was  no  motive  to  Him.  He  acted  as  He 
did,  not  because  the  Son  of  God  should  so  act, 
but  because  He  was  the  Son  of  God. 

VII.   The  better  He  was  kfiown^  the  greater  was 
His  acknowledged  superiority, 

"Human  characters  are  always  reduced  in 
their  eminence  and  the  impressions  of  awe  they 
have  raised  by  a  closer  and  more  complete  ac- 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE   TO    HIM  151 

quaintance.  Weakness  and  blemish  are  discov- 
ered by  familiarity.  Admiration  lets  in  qualifiers ; 
on  approach  the  halo  dims  a  litde.  But  it  was 
not  so  with  Christ.  With  His  disciples  in  closest 
terms  of  intercourse  for  three  whole  years,  their 
brother,  friend,  teacher,  monitor,  guest,  fellow- 
traveler,  seen  by  them  under  all  the  conditions 
of  public  ministry  and  private  society,  where  the 
ambition  of  show  or  pride  of  power,  or  the  ill 
nature  provoked  by  annoyance,  or  the  vanity 
drawn  out  by  confidence,  would  most  certainly 
be  reducing  Him  to  the  criticism  of  persons  most 
unsophisticated,  even,  He  is  yet  visibly  raising 
their  sense  of  His  degree  and  quality  ;  becoming 
a  greater  wonder  and  holier  mystery,  and  gather- 
ing to  His  person  feelings  of  reverence  and  awe 
at  once  more  general  and  more  sacred.  Familiar- 
ity breeds  a  kind  of  apotheosis,  and  the  man  be- 
comes divinity  in  simply  being  known  "  (Bushnell, 
The  Character  of  Jesus,  pp.  60,  61). 

Observe  it  in  His  friends. 

I.  His  mother.  As  a  boy,  she  sought  Him 
anxiously  when  He  was  absent  from  her  company 
(Luke  ii.  44,  48).  As  the  boy  grew,  her  faith  in 
Him  grew.  When  He  began  His  ministry  she 
knew  Him  and  trusted  Him.  When  a  need 
arose  at  the  wedding  in  Cana,  she  simply  stated 
it  to  Him  (John  ii.  3).  His  reply  was  disap- 
pointing, but  it  left  the  faith  which  rested  in  Him 
absolutely  unshaken.  "  Nowhere  else,  perhaps," 
says  Westcott,  "is  such  trust  shown.  Whether 
divine  help  was  given  through  Him  or  not,  so 
much  at  least  could  be  provided,  that  if  the  right 
moment  came  all  should  be  ready  for  His  action." 
"  Whatsoever  He  bids,  do,"  she  commanded  the 
servants  (John  ii.  5).  She  left  all  to  Christ,  trust- 
ing Him.    As  the  months  passed  by  she  came  to 


152  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

trust  Him  more  and  more,  and  at  the  end  stood 
near  His  cross  till,  at  His  bidding,  she  went  away 
to  the  house  of  John,  and  so  was  saved  by  His 
thoughtfulness  the  vision  of  the  end  when,  with 
a  loud  cry  that  would  have  torn  her  heart,  He 
gave  up  His  spirit  and  lay  down  to  rest  in  the 
Father's  arms  (John  xix.  25-27). 

2.  John  the  Baptist.  We  cannot  be  sure  that 
John  knew  Jesus  before  the  baptism,  though  it  is 
most  probable  that  he  did,  and  art  has  ever  repre- 
sented them  as  boys  together.  John's  declaration 
of  unworthiness  to  perform  the  rite  of  baptism 
upon  Jesus  when  He  presented  Himself  would  im- 
ply that  he  had  some  knowledge  of  Him  (Matt, 
iii.  14).  His  words,  in  John  i.  31-33,  "  I  knew 
Him  not,"  need  not  mean  more  than  that  he  did 
not  know  Him  as  Messiah.  They  probably  met 
as  boys  and  young  men,  and  doubtless  talked 
together  of  the  hope  of  Israel.  Having  known 
Him  as  a  friend,  John  at  once  recognized  in  Him 
at  the  baptism  much  more,  and  his  respect  for 
Him  and  realization  of  His  transcendent  unique- 
ness grew  steadily.  He  recognized  in  Him  at 
the  beginning  more  than  the  apostles  Vv^ere  wiUing 
to  put  in  their  final  confession  of  faith  the  night 
of  the  betrayal  (John  i.  29,  34,  36 ;  iii.  28,  29  ; 
xvi.  30).  His  admiration  and  devotion  grew  so 
that  he  desired  nothing  but  his  own  disappear- 
ance in  order  that  all  his  fame  and  reputation 
might  be  transferred  to  Jesus  (John  iii.  30).  His 
last  words  from  prison  were  indicative,  not  of 
faithlessness  or  disappointment,  but  of  impa- 
tience. He  felt  that  the  Lord  was  ready  for  a 
larger  work  than  He  was  doing  (Matt.  xi.  2,  3). 

3.  Simon  Peter.  Simon  willingly  abandoned 
his  business  to  follow  Jesus  (Mark  i.  16,  17).  The 
Lord's  discovery  of  his  need,  and  the  revelation 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  1 53 

of  His  personal  insight  into  his  hfe  when  He 
"  found  "  Simon  in  the  depths  of  his  soul,  and 
gave  to  the  irresolute,  impulsive  man  the  pro- 
phetic name  of  Rock,  firm,  steadfast,  bound  him 
last  to  Jesus  (John  i.  42).  In  his  first  public 
profession  (John  vi.  67-69)  he  declared  his  un- 
willingness to  leave  the  One  who  only  had  the 
words  of  eternal  life  and  in  whom  the  spirit  of 
holiness  was  revealed.  Life  and  holiness  Peter 
had  found  in  Jesus.  In  his  next  confession  he 
had  risen  to  a  faith  in  the  public  ofhce  and  theo- 
cratic person  of  the  Lord  (Mark  viii.  29).  But 
he  was  not  so  in  awe  of  Him  that  he  was  afraid 
to  rebuke  Him,  and  to  challenge  the  accuracy  of 
Christ's  forecasts  of  the  future  (Matt.  xvi.  22), 
and  he  was  not  above  asking  questions  regarding 
the  expected  rewards  (Matt.  xix.  27).  As  the 
personal  revelation  of  Jesus  proceeded,  he  soon 
came  so  into  awe  of  Him  that  he  sought  in  si- 
lence through  John  the  information  he  desired  re- 
garding the  betrayer  (John  xiii.  24),  and  thought 
his  own  life  worthless  in  comparison  with  the  joy 
and  honor  of  sharing  Christ's  lot  (John  xiii.  37) ; 
and  so  strong  became  Christ's  spell  over  him  that 
after  the  revelation  of  his  own  weakness  a  look 
from  Jesus  sent  him  out  into  the  night  with  bitter 
tears  (Luke  xxii.  61,  62). 

4.  The  woman  at  Jacob's  well.  Jesus  first  met 
the  woman  on  the  common  ground  of  simple 
human  friendliness,  and  made  a  request  which 
involved  a  recognition  above  that  which  she  ex- 
pected, and  "conceded  to  her  the  privilege  of 
conferring  a  favor"  (John  iv.  7).  The  strange- 
ness of  the  request  startled  her.  Something  lay 
behind  it.  What  was  it?  the  woman  asked  (John 
iv.  9).  Jesus  proceeded  to  suggest  that  a  discern- 
ing soul  would  have  seized  this  opportunity  to  se- 


154  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

cure  the  living  water  (John  iv.  lo).  His  answer 
was  confusing.  She  saw  the  stranger  was  hint- 
ing at  some  truth  which  was  not  within  her  grasp, 
and  she  felt  after  it  gropingly  (John  iv.  ii,  12). 
Jesus  went  on,  disregarding  the  form  of  her  ques- 
tions, to  hint  at  the  vast  value  of  the  water  He 
could  give  (John  iv.  13,  14).  The  woman  could 
not  follow  the  thoughts  which  He  opened  before 
her  with  such  mysterious  outreach,  but  she  wanted 
such  water  as  He  offered  (John  iv.  15).  She 
had  come  from  suspicion  through  doubt  to  con- 
fidence. Ready  for  His  revelation,  Jesus  makes 
it  by  revealing  her  past  (John  iv.  16-18).  "I 
begin  to  see  that  Thou  art  a  prophet,"  she  replied 
(John  iv.  19).  The  Lord's  words  hinted  mighty 
things  to  her.  Perhaps  in  Him  the  connection  of 
man  with  God  had  been  authoritatively  restored. 
If  so,  then  the  great  national  controversy  could 
be  settled,  which  is  God's  mountain — Gerizim 
or  Jerusalem?  (John  iv.  20).  To  the  opened 
heart  Jesus  revealed  the  spirituality  of  religion 
(John  iv.  21-24).  In  some  way  these  words  of 
Jesus  led  the  woman  to  feel  that  He  must  be 
more  even  than  a  prophet.  Such  teaching  could 
come  only  from  one  who  rose  above  prophets. 
For  such  a  one  she  was  looking  (John  iv.  25). 
Could  this  be  He?  That  question  Jesus  answers 
for  her :  "  I  am  He  "  (John  iv.  26).  And  at  once 
the  woman  went  off  to  her  village  to  declare  her 
faith  in  the  Messiah  who  had  come  (John  iv. 
29).  But  the  woman  did  not  stop  here ;  she  and 
her  countrymen  rose  to  a  faith  in  Christ  as  the 
Saviour  of  the  world  (John  iv.  42). 

"  Lord,  what  a  change  within  us  one  short  hour 
Spent  in  Thy  presence  will  prevail  to  make!" 

5.   Popular  opinion.     Jesus  was  first  recog- 
nized as  Rabbi  (John  i.  38) ;  then  among  a  Httle 


THE    TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  1 55 

circle  as  Messiah  (John  i.  41) ;  then  by  a  few  as 
Son  of  God  and  King  of  Israel  (John  i.  49) ; 
next  as  Saviour  of  the  world  by  a  group  of  peo- 
ple who,  a  few  hours  before,  had  been  complete 
strangers  to  Him  (John  iv.  42) ;  then  among  the 
multitudes  in  Jerusalem  there  were  openly  ex- 
pressed suspicions  that  He  was  the  Christ  (John 
vii.  26,  31).  At  the  Feast  of  the  Dedication  a 
wider  faith  sprang  up  (John  x.  42),  which  recog- 
nized Him  as  King  (John  xii.  13);  only,  under 
the  skilful  management  of  chief  priest  and  ruler, 
to  lead  Him  to  death  lest  the  whole  "world" 
should  become  infatuated  with  Him  (John  xii. 
19;  xi.  47,  48;  Mark  xv.  10,  ii). 

6.  His  own  family.  His  brothers  were  evi- 
dently men  of  strong,  narrow  feelings,  true  Jews, 
jealous  of  their  brother  as  Joseph's  brothers  were 
of  him,  yet  with  natures  capable  of  spiritual 
sympathy.  At  the  outset  they  declared  Jesus 
beside  Himself  (Mark  iii.  21).  This  feeHng  soon 
disappeared,  however.  They  openly  expressed 
their  interest  in  Him  (Luke  viii.  19,  20).  Their 
faith  in  Him  strengthened,  but  it  grew  slowly 
(John  vii.  3-5).  Though  they  had  no  full  belief 
in  Him,  did  not  sacrifice  to  absolute  trust  in  Him 
all  the  fancies  and  prejudices  which  they  cher- 
ished as  to  the  Messiah,  they  soon  came  to  have 
a  form  of  personal  pride  and  interest,  not  deny- 
ing His  mighty  works,  yet  not  afraid  to  advise, 
and  urging  Him  to  show  Himself  on  the  large 
national  stage  at  Jerusalem.  A  few  months  later 
we  learn  that  they  had  openly  declared  themselves 
among  His  disciples  (Acts  i.  14).  Perhaps  tht 
solemn  influences  of  His  death  won  them ;  per- 
haps it  was  His  resurrection  (i  Cor.  xv.  7). 
Lightfoot  thinks  James  was  converted  by  this 
vision  of  the  risen  Lord.  The  names  of  Jesus' 
brethren  are  last  on  the  list  of  disciples  who 


150  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

gathered  in  Jerusalem  after  the  ascension,  indi- 
cating, perhaps,  that  they  had  been  but  recently- 
added  to  the  little  company  of  Christians.  In 
any  event,  James  and  Jude  were  reached  and 
^eatly  changed  since  the  day  they  bade  Jesus 
go  up  to  Judea  and  do  some  miracles,  and,  with 
humility  of  spirit,  in  their  epistles  they  make  no 
-allusion  to  their  family  relationship  to  Him 
{Jude  I  ;  James  i.  i  ;  ii.  i). 

7.  The  disciples.  They  learned  His  lessons 
very  slowly,  but  month  by  month  their  confi- 
dence in  Him  grew.  After  the  walking  upon 
the  sea  they  worshiped  Him  as  truly  the  Son  of 
God  (Matt.  xiv.  ^;^),  but  they  little  understood 
what  a  Son  of  God  was.  Titles  never  de&cribed 
Christ  to  them ;  Christ  described  all  His  titles. 
At  the  end  they  professed  faith  in  His  omnis- 
cience, as  they  had  already  done  in  His  omnip- 
otence (John  xvi.  30).  Yet  even  then  they  fee- 
bly comprehended  His  nature.  They  grew  not 
so  much  in  understanding  of  Him.  At  the  end 
of  His  ministry  they  still  grievously  failed  to 
grasp  His  meaning  (John  xiv.  5,  9,  22,  28,  29). 
Their  growth  was  in  confidence,  in  love,  in  trust, 
in  that  sympathy  which  He  named  faith.  He 
seemed  to  expect  and  claim  this  growth  of  ap- 
preciation with  increasing  acquaintance,  and 
made  companionship  with  Him  the  ground  of 
their  witness  to  Him  (John  xv.  27).  The  scribes 
and  teachers  said,  "  Do  as  we  teach,  not  as  we 
do."  Only  those  were  competent  to  testify  of 
Him  who  had  been  near  enough  to  detect  all 
the  flaws,  and  their  message  was  to  be  the  story 
of  what  they  had  seen  even  more  than  of  what 
they  had  heard  (i  John  i.  1-4).  Peter  made 
such  knowledge  of  Jesus  the  essential  quahfica- 
tion  for  apostleship  (Acts  i.  21,  22),  and  so  also 
did  Paul  (i  Cor.  ix.  i). 


THE   TESTIMONY    BORNE    TO    HIM  1 57 

This  growth  of  respect  with  knowledge  may 
be  seen  also  in  the  views  of  His  enemies;  the 
growing  respect  showed  itself  in  growing  hate. 

At  first  they  looked  on  Him  as  some  new  fa- 
natic (John  V.  16).  The  healing  of  a  man  on 
the  Sabbath  led  to  the  first  open  declaration  of 
hostility,  based  upon  the  alleged  violation  of  the 
Sabbath  law  (Matt.  xii.  1,2).  They  had  ignored 
Him  at  first,  but  He  grew  too  great  for  that 
treatment,  and  an  antagonism  sprang  up  which 
became  abiding.  This  was  caused  not  so  much 
by  any  one  miracle  as  by  what  "  the  Jews  "  saw 
was  an  obvious  principle  of  action  on  the  part 
of  a  novel  and  altogether  unprecedented  leader 
who  was  too  dangerous  to  be  neglected.  Then 
"the  Jews"  who  were  present  at  Capernaum 
raurmured  at  His  teaching,  which  the  multitudes 
had  drunk  in  with  hungry  longing  (John  vi.  41, 
52).  Next  they  marveled  at  His  singular  ac- 
complishments as  a  public  speaker,  and  wanted 
to  know  where  He  gained  His  opinions  (John  vii. 
15).  Shortly  after  this  a  company  of  Temple 
police  was  sent  to  arrest  Him,  but  when  they 
heard  Him  they  were  so  deeply  impressed  that 
they  returned  without  Him,  unable  to  overcome 
the  spell  of  His  remarkable  eloquence  (John  vii. 
46).  Then  His  greatness  and  the  significance  of 
His  claims  grew  on  "  the  Jews,"  and  they  recog- 
nized the  fatal  bearing  of  His  teaching  and  prin- 
ciples on  the  national  ideals,  and  sought  to  stone 
Him  (John  viii.  59).  Next  He  advanced  openly 
His  claims  of  identity  with  God,  and  the  infuri- 
ated "Jews"  took  up  stones  again  (John  x.  31). 
Even  at  the  end  numbers  deserted  to  Him  intel- 
lectually, but  were  afraid  to  confess  because  of 
the  threats  of  excommunication  made  by  the 
Pharisees  (John  xii.  42).  Though  firmly  set 
upon  His  death,  they  shrank  in  fear  from  attempt- 


158  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

ing  it,  and  finally  hired  one  of  His  friends  to 
break  the  spell  and  betray  Him  (Luke  xxii.  3-6). 
Even  then,  when  with  soldiers  and  poHce  they 
went  to  take  Him,  and  He  appeared  at  the  gate 
of  the  garden  and  quietly  asked  whom  they 
sought,  they  were  so  overcome  with  fear  when 
they  recognized  Him  that  they  crowded  back  in 
consternation  and  panic,  and  fell  reeling  to  the 
ground  (John  xviii.  6).  And  when  at  last  the 
chief  priests  had  had  their  way,  and  Jesus  of 
Nazareth,  the  true  King  of  the  Jews  and  the 
King  of  truth  (John  xix.  36-38),  had  been  slain 
Hke  a  criminal,  all  the  multitudes  that  had  come 
together  to  the  sight  were  filled  with  remorse  and 
shame  ;  and  through  the  heavy  darkness  that  had 
settled  down  over  the  earth,  and  with  the  last 
cry  of  the  innocent  and  tortured  sufferer  in  their 
ears,  returned  to  their  homes  smiting  their  breasts 
in  partial  realization  at  least  of  what  their  sense- 
less rage  had  done,  and  of  the  eternal  stain  they 
had  assumed  as  their  own  and  their  children's 
(Luke  xxiii.  48). 

In  proportion  as  we  understand  the  state  of 
Jewish  life,  character,  and  opinion  in  Jesus'  day 
shall  we  value  the  testimony  of  increasing  respect 
in  which  He  was  held  by  those  whose  increasing 
respect  showed  itself  in  ever  more  deadly  hostil- 
ity and  hatred,  bearing  witness  to  the  light  by 
manifesting  the  opposition  and  bitterness  of  dark- 
ness. 

And  so  still,  the  better  Jesus  is  known  the 
more  He  is  respected  and  loved ;  and  those  who 
know  Him  best  are  most  ready,  with  one  who 
conditioned  his  faith  in  His  resurrection  upon 
the  evidence  of  personal  knowledge  and  close 
scrutiny,  to  say,  "  My  Lord  and  my  God." 


OTHER  EXTRAORDINARY  CHARACTER. 
ISTICS  OF  CHRIST,  MOST  EASILY  EX- 
PLICABLE BY  THE  BELIEF  IN  HIS 
DIVINITY 


IS9 


OTHER  EXTRAORDINARY  CHARACTERISTICS  Of 
CHRIST,  MOST  EASILY  EXPLICABLE  BY  THE 
BELIEF  IN  HIS  DIVINITY 

I.  He  presents  the  perfect  ideal  of  friendship. 

We  are  just  beginning  to  appreciate  Jesus  the 
friend.  We  shall  appreciate  Him  more  and 
more  as  our  ideals  of  friendship  rise  to  His. 
To  describe  truly  this  ideal  would  be  to  write  a 
life  of  Jesus  and  to  produce  a  Gospel  that  would 
blend  the  four  we  possess.  "  Friend  of  sinners  " 
was  His  divinest  name.  He  has  taught  great 
masses  of  men  what  it  is  to  love  with  the  friend- 
ship-love. It  was  thus  that  He  revealed  the 
heart  of  that  Father  whose  name  is  friendship- 
love.  The  classic  book  on  this  subject  is  Trum- 
bull's Friefidship^  the  Master  Passion.  Only  some 
of  the  traits  of  the  friendships  of  Jesus  can  be 
suggested  here. 

I.  Unselfishness.  It  was  for  His  friends  that 
He  thought.  When  He  was  called  out  to  the 
gate  of  the  Garden  of  Gethsemane  by  Judas  and 
the  band  that  had  come  for  His  arrest,  His  first 
care  was  to  protect  His  friends  who  were  within 
at  first,  but  who  came  out  at  once  and  closed 
round  Him.  For  them  He  spoke.  "  If  ye  seek 
Me,  well,  here  I  am,  but  let  these  go  their  way  ** 
261 


1 62  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

(John  xviii.  8,  9).  In  many  a  so-called  human 
friendship  a  man  has  dragged  his  friend  down 
with  him  in  ruin.  Jesus  gave  His  Hfe  for  His 
friends,  not  for  those  only  who  were  possessed  by 
the  friendship-love  for  Him,  but  for  His  enemies 
even,  whom  He  still  loved  with  the  love  of  a 
friend  (John  xv.  13;  Rom.  v.  8).  He  willingly 
incurred  the  greatest  personal  danger  for  His 
friend  Lazarus  (John  xi.  2,  8).  In  His  great 
prayer  He  made  but  one  request  for  Himself 
(John  xvii.  1,5);  all  the  rest  was  for  His  friends. 
And  on  the  cross  His  last  thoughts  were  for 
others,  even  His  enemies  (Luke  xxiii.  34),  His 
fellow-sufferers  (Luke  xxiii.  43),  and  His  mother 
(John  xix.  26,  27). 

2.  He  was  not  restricted  in  His  friendships  by 
social  limitations.  He  was  wholly  free  from  the 
prejudice  of  caste.  He  chose  His  friends  with- 
out hesitation  from  the  ostracized  classes.  Our 
societies  and  fraternities  are  made  up  of  people 
of  similar  tastes  and  standing.  Christ  chose  for 
His  friends  those  whose  jieeds  were  met  by  His 
supplies.  When  He  spoke  of  the  loving  wel- 
come given  the  prodigal  son,  great  throngs  of 
publicans  and  sinners  drew  up  close  to  Him, 
knowing  that  He  spoke  it  for  them  and  that  they 
had  found  a  friend  (Luke  xv.  i,  2).  ''Friend  of 
pubhcans  and  sinners"  was  the  sneer  of  the 
Pharisees  (Matt.  xi.  19).  Men  insist  that  it  is 
impossible  to  love  the  unlovely,  that  love  cannot 
be  forced  or  bidden,  that  love  is  controlled  by 
gravity,  and  we  "fall  in."  The  love  that  is  "fall- 
en into"  may  be  fallen  out  of;  the  love  that  is 
born  of  will  is  the  true  abiding  love.  "A  new 
commandment  give  I  unto  you,  that  ye  love," 
were  the  words  of  Him  who  loved  the  unlovely, 
even  us  who  were  lost  in  trespasses  and  sin,  and 


EXTkAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        1 63 

in  whom  there  was  no  beauty  that  He  should 
desire  us.  There  was  nothing  in  men  that  could 
lead  Christ  to  "  fall  in  love "  with  them.  Ht 
beheld  our  needs,  and  He  said,  "  I  will  love  the 
world,"  and  He  loved  us  seeing  in  us  nothing 
attractive  at  all,  save  such  faint  resemblance  to 
Himself  as  was  quickened  by  His  love.  And  so 
He  became  friend  of  sinful  women — Mary  Mag- 
dalene and  the  harlots ;  and  of  impulsive,  fickle, 
stupid,  selfish,  blustering,  distrustful  men — Peter 
and  Philip  and  Judas  and  John  and  James  and 
Thomas ;  and,  last  of  all,  of  us  also. 

3.  He  was  an  unswerving  friend.  He  loved 
His  own  to  the  uttermost  hmit  of  love,  and  to 
the  end  (John  xiii.  i).  The  treachery  of  Judas 
and  the  denials  of  Peter  did  not  remove  them 
from  the  list  of  His  friends  (Matt.  xxvi.  47-50 ; 
Mark  xvi.  7).  Peter's  refusal  to  be  regarded  as 
one  of  His  disciples  might  have  been  construed 
as  removing  him,  but  Jesus  includes  him  still. 
There  can  be  no  such  thing  as  a  dead  or  aban- 
doned friendship.  He  that  has  loved  with  the 
friendship-love  loves  still.  It  is  not  possible  for 
such  love  to  change.  Convictions,  emotions, 
tastes  change,  but  while  God  is  God,  love  of 
friends  changes  not,  cannot  change,  till  God 
denies  Himself,  The  disciple  whom  Jesus  loved 
was  the  loved  disciple  ever,  even  when  the  agony 
of  the  crucifixion  might  have  been  expected  to 
dull  and  deaden  all  such  love  (John  xix.  26 ;  xxi. 
20).  And  so  of  the  Twelve  whom  He  chose  to 
be  with  Him  as  His  friends,  He  lost  not  one  save 
the  son  of  perdition  (John  xvii.  12);  and  even 
that  loss  was  an  illustration  of  the  fulfilment  of 
the  prophecy  that  the  most  famihar  friend  would 
prove  false  to  his  friend,  who  would  still  prove 
true   (John  xiii.   18;   Ps.  xH.  9).      The  treason 


104  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

proved  Judas's  friendship  false,  and  Jesus'  true 
to  Judas,  and  to  the  eleven  whose  friendship  to 
Him  proved  true  at  last. 

"  They  sin  who  tell  us  Love  can  die. 
With  lite  all  other  passions  fly ; 
All  others  are  but  vanity. 
In  heaven  ambition  cannot  dwell, 
Nor  avarice  in  the  vaults  of  hell ; 
Earthly,  these  passions  of  the  earth, 
They  perish  where  they  had  their  birth. 
But  Love  is  indestructible ; 
Its  holy  flame  forever  burneth ; 
From  heaven  it  came,  to  heaven  returneth. 
Too  oft  on  earth  a  troubled  guest, 
At  times  deceived,  at  times  oppressed, 
It  here  is  tried  and  purified, 
Then  hath  in  heaven  its  perfect  rest ; 
It  soweth  here  with  toil  and  care, 
But  the  h;irvest-time  of  Love  is  there." 

Jesus'  doctrine  of  friendship  was  this :  once  a 
friend  always  a  friend.  If  the  friendship  ceases 
or  breaks,  it  never  was  a  friendship.  "  Loved 
oTue  "  means  never  loved  or  love  forever. 

*'  And  who  saith,  '  I  loved  once  '? 
Not  angels — whose  clear  eyes  love,  love  foresee, 

Love  through  eternity, 
And  by  To  Love  do  apprehend  To  Be. 
Not  God,  called  Love,  His  noble  crown-name  casting 

A  light  too  broad  for  blasting! 
The  great  God,  changing  not  from  everlasting, 

Saith  never,  '  I  loved  once.' 

"  Oh,  never  is  '  Loved  once' 
Thy  word,  Thou  victim  Christ,  misprizM  friend! 

Thy  cross  and  curse  may  rend, 
But,  having  loved,  Thou  lovest  to  the  end. 
This,  man's  saying — man's.     Too  weak  to  move 

One  sphered  star  above, 
Man  desecrates  the  eternal  God-word  Love 

By  his  No  More  and  Once. 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        165 

"  How  say  ye,  '  We  loved  ONCE '? 
Blasphemers!      Is  your  earth  not  cold  enow, 

Mourners,  without  that  snow? 
Ah,  friends!  and  would  ye  wrong  each  other  so? 
And  could  ye  say  of  some  whose  love  is  known,— 

Whose  prayers  have  met  your  own. 
Whose  tears  have  fallen  for  you,  whose  smiles  have 
shone 
So  long,—'  We  loved  them  once  '? 

"  Say  never  ye  loved  ONCE. 
God  is  too  near  above,  the  grave  beneath, 

And  all  our  moments  breathe 
Too  quick  in  mysteries  of  life  and  death. 
For  such  a  word.      The  eternities  uvenge 

Affections  light  of  range. 
There  comes  no  change  to  justify  that  change. 

Whatever  comes.  Loved  once! 

"  And  yet  that  same  word  once 
Is  humanly  acceptive.     Kings  have  said, 

Shaking  a  discrowned  head, 
'  We  ruled  once ;'  dotards,  '  We  once  taught  and  led.' 
Cripples  once  danced  i'  the  vines,  and  bards  approved 

Were  once  by  scornings  moved  ; 
But  love  strikes  one  hour — love!   Those  never  loved 

Who  dream  that  they  loved  ONCE." 

4.  Jesus  was  a  faithful  friend.  There  was 
never  any  adulation  or  flattery  in  His  words  to  or 
about  His  friends.  When  John  sent  his  disciples 
from  prison  with  the  question  of  impatience, 
meaning  to  suggest  to  Jesus  the  desirability  of  a 
more  speedy  and  direct  public  declaration  of 
Himself  as  Messiah,  Jesus  sent  back  no  word  of 
rebuke  or  praise  to  John  ;  but  the  moment  John's 
disciples  had  gone  He  burst  forth  into  commen- 
dation and  defense  of  John.  The  people  might 
infer  from  the  visit  that  John  had  wavered  in  his 
faith ;  so  Jesus  proceeded  to  clear  him  of  that 
charge  (Matt.  xi.  7).  Then  He  coupled  John 
with  Himself  (Matt.  xi.  18),  and  told  of  his 
greatness  (Matt.  xi.  11),  declaring  that  John  was 


l66  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

the  greatest  man  that  had  ever  Hved,  and  con- 
trasting with  that  greatness,  and  the  rugged  loy- 
alty to  God  of  the  forerunner,  the  childish  cavil- 
ing of  that  generation.  After  the  stem  rebuke  of  the 
cities  which  had  rejected  His  preaching,  to  which 
He  was  led  on.  He  recurs  at  the  close,  perhaps, 
to  the  thought  of  John  lying  weary  in  his  dun- 
geon, and  speaks  tenderly  of  the  rest  to  be  found 
in  Him,  and  offers  to  all  the  strength  and  re- 
pose in  God's  service  which  He  knew  God  in 
His  grace  was  giving  to  His  imprisoned  friend 
(Matt.  xi.  20-30).  While  He  was  thus  free  from 
anything  like  adulation  or  sweet-phrased  flattery, 
He  was  absolutely  faithful  in  telling  His  friends 
the  truth,  though  it  was  painful  truth.  A  great 
throng  which  He  addressed  as  *'  My  friends " 
He  warned  to  fear  Him  who,  after  He  had 
killed,  had  power  to  cast  into  hell  (Luke  xii.  i, 
4,  5).  A  young  man  came  running  to  Him  once 
with  youthful  enthusiasm,  and  Jesus  at  once 
conceived  a  friendship  for  him;  but  seeing  in 
him  the  sore  of  covetousness,  He  honestly  laid 
His  iinger  on  it,  and  the  young  man  shrank  back 
from  life  unwilling  to  pay  the  price  (Mark  x.  17- 
22).  He  told  Simon  that  Satan  had  asked  for 
the  apostles  to  test  and  try  them,  and  to  winnow 
the  chaff  from  the  grain.  One  had  failed  under 
the  test,  had  surrendered  his  heart  to  Satan 
(John  xiii.  2).  Peter's  impulsive  disposition  put 
him  in  greater  danger  than  the  rest,  while  the 
victory  would  be  certain  to  make  him  a  strength 
and  support  to  others.  All  this  Jesus  as  a  true 
friend  told  Peter  in  advance  (Luke  xxii.  31-34). 
It  is  very  easy  to  say  pleasant  things  to  a  friend ; 
it  is  hard  to  inflict  those  faithful  wounds  which 
are  the  highest  test  and  the  most  painful  task  of 
love. 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        1 67 

5.  Tenderness.  The  miracles  of  Jesus  were 
not  wrought  by  a  mechanical  word  of  power. 
The  element  of  sympathy,  of  tenderness,  entered 
largely.  The  sufferings  and  diseases  of  men 
were  taken  away  not  by  destruction,  but  by  His 
own  mysterious  appropriation  of  them.  He  took 
them  upon  Himself  (Matt.  viii.  17).  The  power 
which  healed  others  went  out  of  Him  (Luke 
viii.  46).  All  this  deep  sympathy  of  life,  which 
brought  Him  into  such  close  relations  with  men, 
deepened  into  a  holy  tenderness  in  His  friend- 
ships. Only  in  this  way  can  we  understand  such 
scenes  as  those  at  the  home  in  Bethany  and  the 
grave  of  Lazarus  (John  xi.  11,  33-38).  The  last 
night  of  His  Hfe  He  tenderly  washed  the  feet 
of  each  disciple,  including  Judas,  at  the  supper 
which  was  to  be  His  last  with  them ;  expressing 
so  His  love  and  care,  and  desiring  to  teach  them 
so  the  true  secret  of  greatness,  found  in  lowly  and 
loving  service  of  others  (John  xiii.  1-20).  After 
His  resiurection  He  sent  a  special  word  of  re- 
membrance to  Peter,  who  would  be  feeling  most 
deeply  and  dismally  the  shame  of  his  threefold 
denial  of  his  friend  (Mark  xvi.  7). 

6.  Community  of  possessions.  Kingsley  tells 
the  story  of  two  monks  who  hved  together  for 
many  years  in  a  cave,  growing  to  love  each 
other  with  an  ever  deeper  and  more  friendhke 
love.  Wearying  at  last  of  the  monotony  of  their 
life,  one  of  them  suggested  to  the  other  that  they 
should  have  a  quarrel  as  was  the  fashion  in  the 
world  without.  "  But  about  what  shall  we  quar- 
rel? "  asked  the  other.  "  We  will  take  this  stone 
and  put  it  between  us,  and  I  will  say, '  This  stone 
is  mine,'  and  you  say,  '  This  stone  is  mine,'  and 
so  we  will  quarrel."  The  stone  was  placed  be- 
tween them.     "  This  stone  is  mine,"  said  one. 


1 68  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

"  I  think  the  stone  is  mine,"  the  other  gently  re- 
pHed.  "  If  the  stone  is  thine,  take  it,"  said  the 
one  who  had  proposed  the  quarrel.  A  friend 
has  no  pleasure  save  in  sharing  all  with  his 
friend.  Jesus  shared  all  with  His  friends.  He 
shared  His  moTiey  (John  xii.  6).  They  had  a 
common  bag,  borne  by  the  one  best  capable  of 
handhng  the  small  financial  affairs  of  the  band, 
and  who  gave  way,  as  most  men  do,  to  the 
temptations  which  came  to  him  through  that  for 
which  he  was  best  fitted.  He  shared  His  know- 
ledge. All  that  He  had  learned  from  the  Father 
He  told  to  His  friends,  keeping  from  them  no 
secrets  (John  xv.  14,  15).  The  time  of  His  sec- 
ond coming,  which  they  desired  to  know.  He 
told  them  He  did  not  know  Himself  (Mark  xiii. 
32),  He  shared  His  life.  He  had  the  great  love, 
than  which  no  love  is  greater,  that  leads  a  man 
to  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friends  (John  xv.  13). 
7.  Molding  influence.  Many  of  our  friend- 
ships, so  called,  are  for  the  pleasure  of  them. 
The  friendships  of  Jesus  were  formed  for  the 
good  He  would  be  able  to  do  through  them 
for  others.  James  had  evidently  been  a  man 
of  rough  edges,  of  a  vigor  almost  violent ;  but 
his  epistle  shows  the  molding,  softening  influ- 
ence of  Jesus.  A  few  passing  expressions  of 
deep  and  lowly  reverence  disclose  his  tender 
love  of  his  friend,  "  throned  high  in  the  back- 
ground of  his  thought."  And  throughout  the 
epistle,  in  little  things,  in  standards  of  judgment, 
in  views  of  life  and  character,  we  see  the  tender 
and  sympathetic  reverence  he  feels  for  Jesus, 
and  the  loving  place  he  assigns  Jesus'  judgments 
and  Jesus  Himself  in  his  heart.  Jude  came  to 
Jesus  late  in  life  probably ;  was  perhaps  influ- 
enced most  by  Him  after  He  was  gone ;  but  his 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        1 69 

epistle,  brief  as  it  is,  reveals  clearly  the  influence 
the  friendship  of  Jesus  had  upon  him.  He  calls 
himself  the  "slave  of  Jesus  Christ."  Writing  to 
those  "kept  for  Jesus  Christ,"  he  speaks  with 
pride  and  love  of  "the  apostles  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,"  and  beseeches  those  to  whom  he 
writes  to  look  for  "  the  mercy  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ " ;  and  he  closes  with  one  of  the  finest 
ascriptions  in  the  Bible  (Jude  24,  25).  Simon 
Peter,  the  irresolute,  impulsive,  undiscerning,  out- 
spoken, self-willed,  boastful,  rough  fisherman,  was 
transformed  by  this  friendship  into  the  discern- 
ing, sensitive,  trustful,  resolute,  tender  disciple 
who  wrote  the  First  Epistle  of  Peter,  whose  first 
nine  verses  are  as  widely  removed  from  the  spirit 
and  tone  of  Peter's  early  life,  before  he  came 
under  the  influence  of  the  friendship  of  Jesus,  as 
the  east  is  from  the  west. 

Do  we  have  such  purposes  and  fruits,  such 
ideals  and  realizations,  in  the  life  of  friendship  as 
Jesus  had?     Ought  we  not  to  have? 

II.  His  piety  was  unrepentant^  and  yet  sustained. 

All  men  admit  that  He  was  a  holy  and  pious 
man  and  wrought  good  among  men.  But  He 
Himself  claimed  that  He  made  no  mistakes  or 
errors  in  this  effort  to  help  men,  that  He  came 
to  do  God's  will,  and  that  He  unfailingly  did  it, 
never  doing  one  thing  that  did  not  please  God 
(John  vi.  2>^  ;  viii.  29).  Philip,  the  evangehst,  is 
to  men  an  object-lesson  of  unquestioning  obedi- 
ence because  he  o?ice  willingly  obeyed  the  divine 
whisper  of  guidance  (Acts  viii.  26,  27). 

*'  'Twas  silent  all  and  dead 
Beside  the  barren  sea, 
Where  Philip's  steps  were  led— 


170  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

Led  by  a  voice  from  Thee. 
He  rose  and  went,  nor  asked  Thee  why, 
Nor  stayed  to  heave  one  faithless  sigh." 

Jesus  declared  that  such  compHance  with  the 
will  of  God  was  His  constant  life. 

He  declared  that  His  whole  being  was  in  ab- 
solute harmony  with  the  being  of  the  Father,  and 
that  the  Father  was  personally  present  with  the 
Son  (John  viii.  29).  He  openly  demanded, 
"Which  of  you  convicteth  Me  of  sin?"  (John 
viii.  46).  As  He  put  the  question,  it  was  an  ap- 
peal to  His  hearers  to  point  to  one  flaw  in  Him 
or  His  life,  in  His  acts  or  words,  and  was  ac- 
cordingly only  an  appeal  to  a  human  standard. 
But  He  meant  to  assert  far  more  than  this.  He 
was  declaring  His  own  sinlessness.  "  When  we 
read  this  question  the  feeling  forces  itself  upon 
us  that  its  author  must  have  been  a  person  of  a 
moral  character  most  pecuhar ;  a  feeling  greatly 
strengthened  by  the  recollection  that  He  who 
spoke  these  words  was  one  who  in  His  whole 
life  presents  to  us  a  picture  at  once  of  purest 
truthfulness  and  most  divine  humility.  Every 
man,  too,  must  be  fully  convinced  that  he  has 
no  right  to  make  these  words  of  simple  greatness 
his  own,  and  that  for  him  to  apply  them  to  him* 
self,  and  in  the  face  of  the  most  unanswerable 
facts,  and  with  the  clamant  voice  of  conscience 
sounding  in  his  ear,  would  only  prove  him  a 
vain  fool  or  a  miserable  self-deceiver  Least  of 
all  could  this  happen  within  the  sphere  of  Chris- 
tian life,  where  the  idea  of  divine  holiness  was  so 
clearly  stamped,  the  moral  law  carried  to  such  a 
height  of  perfection,  and  the  claims  of  conscience 
so  highly  respected ;  least  of  all  in  a  community 
from  the  midst  of  which  we  hear  that  same  apos- 
tle who  has  preserved  to  us  the  saying  of  Jesus 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        171 

exclaim,  '  If  we  say  that  we  have  no  sin,  we 
deceive  ourselves,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us ' " 
(i  John  i.  8)  (Ullmann,  The  Smlessness  of  Je- 
sus^ pp.  95,  96).  Notice  who  wrote  this  charge 
of  universal  sin:  the  hoHest  disciple  of  all,  "a 
faithful  apostle  of  Christ,  and  a  veteran,"  as 
Bengel  calls  him.  Notice  the  force  and  breadth 
of  it:  "We  have  all  the  abiding  reality  of  sin. 
If  we  say  we  have  not,  we  are  but  misleading 
ourselves,  self-deceived  and  self-involved  in  oui' 
pride,  and  the  truth  is  not  in  us.  And  we  have 
not  alone  sin  in  the  abstract,  but  definite  per- 
sonal sins.  We  are  sinful  in  our  present  condi- 
tion as  the  result  of  past  sin.  If  we  deny  it  we 
are  worse  than  liars ;  we  make  Him  a  liar.  Our 
life  is  a  practical  negation  of  that  doctrine  and 
person  who  are  absolute  truth,  for  the  '  imagina- 
tion of  our  own  sinlessness  is  an  inward  lie.' " 

"  It  is  certainly  a  fact  of  the  highest  signifi- 
cance that,  in  opposition  to  this  attestation  of 
universal  sinfulness  which  every  one  without  ex- 
ception must  indorse,  there  is  One  who  steps 
forth  from  the  ranks  of  humanity  and  exclaims, 
'Which  of  you  convicteth  Me  of  sin?'"  (Ull- 
mann, ibid.).  And  the  personal  claim  involved 
in  this  challenge  Jesus  put  forth  constantly.  He 
declared  that  in  their  hatred  of  Him  the  Jews  ful- 
filled the  Scripture,  which  He  appropriated  as 
applying  to  Himself,  "They  hated  Me  without 
a  cause"  (John  xv.  25).  It  had  no  justification 
at  all.     It  was  pure  hatred  of  innocence. 

I.  Now  no  heathen  ever  made  such  a  claim 
as  this  of  Christ's.  Witness  Horace :  "  Nam 
vitiis  nemo  sine  nascetur ;  optimus  ille  est  qui  min- 
imis nascetur ;  "  Simonides  :  "l^lvai  dvdpa  ayaOhv 
d6vvaTov  Kol  ovk  dv6pG)neL0Vy  dXXd  Oebg  fiovog 
TovTO  e%ei  rb  yepag ;  "  Confucius :  "  In  letters  I 


172  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

am  perhaps  equal  to  other  men ;  but  the  charac- 
ter of  the  perfect  man,  carrying  out  in  his  con- 
duct what  he  professes,  is  what  I  have  not  yet 
attained  to."  And  all  the  Jews  of  Jesus'  day 
were  conscious  of  sin.  They  felt  called  on  to 
protest  that  He  too  was  a  sinner  (John  ix.  24). 
Their  protestation  is  an  added  indication  of  the 
extraordinary  character  of  the  claim  to  sinless- 
ness  which  He  openly  put  forth. 

2.  But  Jesus  is  remarkable  not  only  for  claim- 
ing perfect  sinlessness,  but  also  for  the  mainte- 
nance of  His  piety  in  neglect  of  the  means  for 
its  maintenance  which  men  have  ever  found  in- 
dispensable. Human  piety  springs  from  perfect 
repentance.  This  was  what  John  demanded 
when  he  came  as  the  forerunner :  "  Repent  ye  ; 
for  the  kingdom  of  heaven  is  at  hand"  (Matt, 
iii.  2;  Luke  iii.  2,  3).  It  was  "the  baptism  of 
repentance  unto  remission  of  sins"  that  he 
preached.  Jesus  Himself  rigorously  preached 
the  same  doctrine  (Matt.  iv.  17;  Luke  xiii.  3; 
Matt.  xi.  20-24).  On  Pentecost  Peter  pro- 
claimed repentance  as  the  condition  of  remission 
of  sins  and  the  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost  (Acts  ii. 
38) ;  and  Paul  esteemed  it  a  thing  not  to  be  re- 
pented of,  as  it  opened  the  gates  of  salvation 
(2  Cor.  vii.  9,  10). 

Holy  men  are  men  of  the  deepest  and  most 
constant  repentance,  combined  with  an  over- 
whelming sense  of  personal  unworthiness.  Isa- 
iah, the  greatest  of  all  the  prophets  before  John 
the  Baptist,  saw  the  glory  of  the  Lord  in  the 
Temple  in  the  year  that  King  Uzziah  died,  while 
the  pillars  rocked  to  and  fro  and  the  house  was 
filled  with  smoke,  and  he  cried  out  in  agony, 
**  Woe  is  me !  for  I  am  undone ;  because  I  am  a 
man  of  unclean  lips,  and  I  dwell  in  the  midst  of 
a  people  of  unclean  lips:  for  mine  eyes  have 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         I  73 

seen  the  King,  the  Lord  of  hosts"  (Isa.  vi.  5). 
Simon  Peter  saw  on  the  shores  of  Gennesaret 
the  Holy  One  of  God,  and  he  fell  down  at  Jesus' 
knees,  saying,  **  Depart  from  me ;  for  I  am  a  sin- 
ful man,  O  Lord  "  (Luke  v.  8).  Every  vision  of 
truth  or  of  God  is  a  vision  of  our  own  sinfulness. 
And  he  is  the  holy  man  who,  repelled  by  his 
own  sin,  seeks  with  sole  longing  the  beauty  and 
the  holiness  of  God.  "Those  who  have  lived 
iiearest  to  God  and  have  known  most  about 
Him  and  have  been  most  visibly  irradiated  by 
ihe  hght  of  His  countenance  have  been  foremost 
to  acknowledge  that  the  burden  of  remaining  im- 
perfection in  them  was  intolerable,  and  have  re- 
pented in  sackcloth  and  ashes."  And  those  who 
have  served  God  with  greatest  power  have  gained 
the  strength  and  passion  for  their  service  from 
the  sense  of  their  unhoHness  and  infidehty,  and 
their  longing  to  atone  in  fervent  and  repentant 
love,  and  to  ease  conscience  in  the  open  confes- 
sion of  sins  detested.  So  Paul,  in  Myer's  fine 
poem: 

"  Also  T  ask, — but  ever  from  the  praying 

Shrinks  my  soul  backward,  eager  and  afraid, — 
'  Point  me  the  sum  and  shame  of  my  betraying; 

Show  me,  O  Love,  Thy  wounds  which  I  have  made! 

"  '  Yes,  Thou  forgivest,  but  with  all  forgiving 
Canst  not  renew  mine  innocence  again. 
Make  Thou,  O  Christ,  a  dying  of  my  living; 
Purge  me  from  sin,  but  never  from  the  pain.' 

"  So  shall  all  speech  of  now  and  of  to-morrow, 
All  He  hath  shown  me  or  shall  show  me  y«t, 
Spring  from  an  infinite  and  tender  sorrow. 
Burst  from  a  burning  passion  of  regret. 

*'  Standing  afar,  I  summon  you  anigh  Him; 
Yes,  to  the  multitudes  I  call  and  say, 
'  This  is  my  King!      I  preach  and  I  deny  Him— ' 
Christ!  whom  I  crucify  anew  to-day.'  " 


174  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

Even  Strauss  admits,  "  In  all  those  natures 
which  were  only  purified  by  struggles  and  violent 
disruptions  (think  only  of  a  Paul,  an  Augustine, 
a  Luther)  the  shadowy  color  of  this  remains  for- 
ever, and  something  hard  and  severe  and  gloomy 
clings  to  them  all  their  lives ;  but  of  this  in  Jesus 
no  trace  is  found."  For  Jesus  is  not  like  the 
others.  He  admits  no  imperfections  in  Himself. 
He  proclaims  a  perfect  message,  and  identifies 
Himself  with  the  message  and  with  God,  from 
whom  He  declares  He  has  received  it.  He  is 
never  repentant,  never  asks  pardon  for  His  sins, 
prays  only  for  the  forgiveness  of  the  sins  of 
others,  and  yet  His  piety  stays  ever  fresh  and 
sweet  and  ingenuous.  "  Piety  without  one  dash 
of  repentance,  one  ingenuous  confession  of 
wrong,  one  tear,  one  look  of  contrition,  one 
request  to  heaven  for  pardon — let  any  one  of 
mankind  try  this  kind  of  piety,"  says  Bushnell, 
"and  see  how  long  it  will  be  ere  his  righteous- 
ness will  prove  itself  to  be  the  most  impudent 
conceit!  how  long  before  his  passions,  sobered 
by  no  contrition,  his  pride,  kept  down  by  no 
repentance,  will  tempt  him  into  absurdities  that 
will  turn  his  pretenses  to  mockery !  "  Jesus  began 
with  an  impenitent,  unrepentant  piety,  and  though 
it  was  subjected  to  tests  of  indescribable  severity. 
He  kept  it  unsullied,  unstained  to  the  end.  Each 
day  of  His  life  even  deepens  our  admiration  of 
Him,  our  confidence  in  His  spotless  and  holy 
purity.  Even  though  we  might  have  questioned 
His  wonderful  assertion  at  the  outset,  we  dare 
not  at  the  close,  but  only  say  reverently,  with  the 
centurion,  "  Surely  this  was  a  righteous  man." 

Even  F.  W.  Newman  must  say  (the  wondei  is 
he  dare  say  so  Httle),  "That  Jesus  was  intended 
for  head  of  the  human  race  in  one  or  more  senses 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        1 75 

would  be  a  plausible  opinion ;  nor  should  I  feel 
any  repugnance  against  believing  His  morality 
to  be,  if  not  divinely  perfect,  yet  separated  from 
that  of  common  men  so  far  that  He  might  be  to 
us  a  God  just  as  every  parent  is  to  a  young 
child." 

3.  But  Jesus  not  only  presumes  to  lead  a  sin- 
less and  unrepentant  life ;  He  professes  to  for- 
give sin  and  sinners,  and  those  who  feel  the 
weight  of  their  sins  accept  His  word  for  it  that 
their  sins  are  forgiven.  Four  men,  in  their  ear- 
nest zeal  for  a  friend's  recovery,  lower  him  on  a 
bed  through  the  roof  of  the  house  in  which  Jesus 
was,  "  and  seeing  their  faith.  He  said,  Man,  thy 
sins  are  forgiven  thee"  (Luke  v.  20-26).  A 
poor  sinful  woman  tenderly  expressed  her  love 
by  performing  duties  which  His  host  of  the 
Pharisees  had  neglected,  and  He  met  her  love 
with  the  words,  "Thy  sins  are  forgiven  "  (Luke  vii. 
48).  Even  His  words  from  the  cross,  "  Father, 
forgive  them ;  for  they  know  not  w'hat  they  do  " 
(Luke  xxiii.  34),  seem  not  so  much  a  prayer  as  a 
declaration,  on  the  part  of  Him  who  had  power 
to  forgive  sins,  of  both  His  power  and  His  will- 
ingness to  forgive  to  the  uttermost.  The  Jews 
at  least  fully  understood  the  significance  of 
these  claims  of  Christ  to  be  able  to  forgive  sin. 
"Who  is  this  that  speaketh  blasphemies?"  they 
said.  "Who  can  forgive  sins,  but  God  alone?  " 
(Luke  V.  21).  "Who  is  this  that  even  forgiveth 
sins?  "    (Luke  vii.  49). 

One  thing  more  needs  to  be  added.  He  de- 
clared by  clear  implication  that  the  love  of  men 
for  God  is  proportionate  to  their  sense  of  God's 
forgiveness  (Luke  vii.  47) ;  in  other  words,  that 
love  springs  from  repentance — deepest  love  from 
deepest  repentance.   Yet  He  Himself  affirms  that 


176  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

perfect  love  exists  between  Himself  and  the 
Father  (John  xiv.  31;  xv.  9,  10;  xvii.  21,  23), 
that  they  are  indeed  one  (John  x.  30),  and  this 
without  His  ever  having  felt  for  one  moment 
the  need  of  repentance  or  confessed   any  sin. 

4.  The  character  of  Christ's  piety  appears  yet 
more  remarkable  when  we  remember  that  He 
made  no  progress  in  His  spiritual  life.  There 
was  the  life  in  Him  ever,  and  there  was  no  room 
for  progress,  because  He  had  reached  the  goal 
— was,  indeed.  Himself  the  goal  (John  xi.  25). 
It  is  not  so  with  men.  Holy  men  are  men  of 
growth.  Life  without  growth  is  death.  We  rise 
by  repentance,  stepping  upon  ourselves  left  be- 
hind. So  far  as  life  is  true  for  us,  it  is  perpetual 
advance  upon  and  beyond  ourselves. 

**  I  hold  it  truth,  with  him  who  sings 
To  one  clear  harp  in  divers  tones, 
That  men  may  rise  on  stepping-stones 
Of  their  dead  selves  to  higher  things  " — 

and  that  that  is  the  only  way  they  do  rise. 

**  Heaven  is  not  reached  by  a  single  bound, 
But  we  build  the  ladder  by  which  we  rise 
From  the  lowly  earth  to  the  vaulted  skies. 
And  we  mount  to  its  summit  round  by  round. 

**  We  rise  by  the  things  that  are  under  our  feet, 
By  what  we  have  mastered  of  good  and  of  gain, 
By  the  pride  deposed  and  the  passion  slain 
And  the  vanquished  ills  that  we  hourly  meet." 

5.  The  impression  that  He  was  a  sinless  and 
holy  man  was  made  upon  many  of  diverse  types 
of  character,  of  course  upon  all  who  really  grasped 
the  conception  of  Him,  "  the  very  idea  of  such 
a  Being  excluding  the  possibility  of  conceiving 
Him  as  sinful."     Herod  thought  Jesus  was  John 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         I  77 

the  Baptist  risen  from  the  dead  (Mark  vi.  14), 
and  John  he  knew  to  be  "a  righteous  man  and 
a  holy"  (Mark  vi.  20).  Pilate  after  two  exami- 
nations declared  to  the  people  that  he  found  no 
pohtical  fault  in  Jesus,  nothing  that  could  be 
made  ground  of  His  condemnation  (Luke  xxiii. 
4,  14).  At  the  end  of  the  farcical  trial,  when  he 
gave  way  before  the  threat  to  accuse  him  at 
Rome  (John  xix.  12),  he  openly  but  vainly  said, 
"  I  am  innocent  of  the  blood  of  this  righteous 
man"  (Matt,  xxvii.  24).  Pilate's  wife,  troubled 
with  dreams  of  the  lowly  sufferer,  sent  word  to 
her  husband  even  while  sitting  on  the  judgment- 
seat,  saying,  "  Have  thou  nothing  to  do  with  that 
righteous  man"  (Matt,  xxvii.  19).  The  centuri- 
on who  watched  His  death  and  cross  was  deeply 
impressed  with  the  same  truth.  "  Certainly,"  he 
declared,  "  this  was  a  righteous  man  "  (Luke  xxiii. 
47).  Note  also  the  testimony  of  those  who  had 
been  most  closely  associated  with  Him,  espe- 
cially Judas.  "  Long  and  most  confidential  inter- 
course," says  Ullmann,  "  had  given  him  the  most 
intimate  knowledge  of  his  Master;  hence  if  he 
could  have  found  anything  reproachable  in  His 
hfe  he  would  without  doubt  have  brought  it  for- 
ward in  order  to  quiet  his  conscience  in  view  of 
the  consequences  of  his  treachery,  and  to  palliate 
his  crime."  And  Judas  would  have  seen  any- 
thing reproachable.  He  had  borne  the  bag; 
any  pecuniary  weakness — we  shudder  at  the 
thought — would  have  been  known  to  him.  He 
made  the  practical  travehng  arrangements,  act- 
ing as  business  agent.  Any  weakness  in  Jesus — 
and  in  precisely  such  circumstances  do  weak- 
nesses reveal  themselves — would  have  fallen 
under  his  eye;  any  selfishness,  any  raggedness 
of  temper,  any  little  half-pardonable  hastiness  or 


lyS  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

indiscretion  of  spirit.  But  Judas  saw  nothing 
which  he  could  use  as  justification  for  his  treach- 
ery, and  so  heavy  did  his  dark  deed  hang  upon 
his  soul  that  he  returned  the  money  to  the  priests, 
crying,  "  I  have  sinned  in  that  I  betrayed  inno- 
cent blood  "  (Matt,  xxvil  4),  and  went  out  and 
hanged  himself;  his  confession  the  first  voice 
telling  the  chief  traitors  what  would  be  with 
ever  more  thundering  emphasis  the  verdict  of 
humanity. 

We  must  combine  with  these  testimonies  the 
opinion  of  the  faithful  apostles  who  survived 
Him.  Their  first  preaching  asserted  His  stainless- 
ness.  "  The  Holy  and  Righteous  One,"  they  call 
Him  in  loyal  and  complete  admiration  (Acts  iii. 
14);  or  "the  Righteous  One"  (Acts  xxii.  14;  i 
Pet.  iii.  18).  Paul  declared  him  to  be  the  very 
incarnation  of  the  divine  and  sinless  and  infinite 
life  (i  Tim.  iii.  16).  The  writer  of  the  Epistle 
to  the  Hebrews  asserts  that,  though  He  under- 
stood and  felt  the  full  force  of  the  motives  which 
were  presented  to  draw  Him  into  sin  (Heb.  iv. 
15),  He  still  remained  entirely  apart  from  it,  un- 
sullied by  its  stain,  inwardly  and  wholly  devoted 
to  God  and  His  purity  (Heb.  vii.  26,  27).  Peter, 
recalling  His  hatred  of  deceit,  His  guilelessness, 
His  temptation  to  strong  and  insolent  words,  and 
His  lamb-like  silence,  wrote.  He  "did  no  sin, 
neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth:  who, 
when  He  was  reviled,  reviled  not  again ;  when 
He  suffered,  threatened  not"  (i  Pet.  ii.  21-25). 
He  was  "  a  lamb  without  blemish  and  without 
spot"  (i  Pet.  i.  19).  John  never  tired  of  speak- 
ing of  Him  as  "the  righteous,"  "Jesus  Christ 
the  righteous"  (i  John  ii.  i;  iii,  7);  and  Paul 
sums  up  the  general  testimony  succinctly  in  his 
declaration,  "  Him  who  came  to  no  acquaintance 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         I  79 

with  sin  He  made  to  be  sin  on  our  behalf "  (2 
Cor.  V.  21).     Thus  spoke  those  who 

"  Caught  the  gracious  eye 
Of  Him,  the  sinless  Teacher,  who  came  for  us  to  die." 

Even  among  the  people  so  clear  was  the  ap- 
prehension of  His  purity  that  the  voice  of  slan- 
der was  never  raised  against  Him.  "  Francis  of 
Assisi,  Vincent  de  Paul,  and  many  of  the  sweet- 
est and  purest  saints  of  earth  did  not  escape  the 
pestilent  breath  of  slander ;  yet  though  He  Hved 
in  familiar  intercourse  with  publicans  and  harlots, 
His  worst  enemies  never  dared  to  breathe  suspi- 
cion on  the  spotless  innocence  of  Christ "  (Far- 
rar,  The  Witfiess  of  History  to  Christy  p.  83). 

6.  And  yet  the  piety  of  Christ  was  not  obtru- 
sive. It  is  of  Him  we  think,  the  pure  and  sinless, 
rather  than  of  His  purity  and  sinlessness.  As 
Ullmann  says,  "  In  Jesus  piety  never  obtrudes 
itself,  yet  everything  that  He  did  became  in  His 
hand  an  expression  and  sign  of  piety ;  hence, 
moreover,  the  whole  manifestation  of  Jesus  does 
not  convey  to  us  the  idea  of  a  character  merely 
religious  or  possessing  only  the  highest  moral 
qualities,  but  rather  of  morality  and  religion  in 
perfect  combination ;  in  a  word,  the  idea  of  holi- 
ness." 

In  spite  of  His  spotless  holiness  He  was  ever 
accessible  and  near.  The  testimony  of  need  and 
want  and  love  is  given  abundantly  to  the  win- 
someness  of  a  life  made  winsome,  made  to  com- 
mand the  confidence  of  all  by  its  absolute  free- 
dom from  all  taint,  from  all  the  corrosion  which 
breaks  the  attraction  of  a  soul  and  its  capacity 
to  help.  The  attractiveness  of  Jesus  bears  evi- 
dence to  the  loveliness  of  His  life  (Mark  x.  13; 


l8o  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

Luke  viii.  44).  "His  holiness  made  Him  an 
utter  stranger  in  such  a  polluted  world.  His 
grace  kept  Him  ever  active  in  such  a  needy  and 
afflicted  world." 

7.  Now  with  all  these  claims  by  Himself  for 
Himself,  by  others  for  Him,  if  we  will  not  in 
simplicity  lend  confidence  to  them,  we  must  de- 
clare Jesus  either  a  fanatic  or  a  hypocrite.  In 
the  former  case  He  was  self-deceived,  with  infe- 
rior moral  discernment,  and  though  a  sinner,  was 
ignorant  of  the  fact.  But  such  a  supposition  is 
contradicted  utterly  by  His  character,  by  its  per- 
fect balance,  by  the  testimony  to  His  sinlessness 
and  holiness  of  those  who  knew  Him  and  fol- 
lowed Him.  If  we  accept  the  other  alternative, 
then  we  must  believe  that  He  was  conscious 
of  transgressing  the  divine  law  constantly  and 
wretchedly,  and  yet  expressly  denied  it.  "  But 
who  is  there,"  asks  Ullmann,  ''that  would  be 
ready  to  undertake  the  defense  of  such  a  posi- 
tion, and  to  maintain  that  He,  who  in  all  the 
circumstances  of  His  life  acted  from  the  purest 
conscientiousness  and  who  at  last  died  for  the 
truth  upon  the  cross,  was  after  all  nothing  but 
an  abject  hypocrite?  How  could  it  be  that  He, 
of  whom  even  the  least  susceptible  must  confess 
that  there  breathed  around  Him  an  atmosphere 
of  purity  and  faith,  should  have  fallen  into  an 
antagonism  with  Himself  so  deep  and  so  deadly? 
Since,  then,  by  abandoning  ourselves  to  our  own 
conjectures,  we  would  only  land  in  irreconcilable 
contradictions,  let  us  yield  our  faith  to  the  simple 
assurances  of  the  most  honest  and  intelligent  wit- 
nesses of  the  truth.  We  come  into  the  posses- 
sion of  many  of  the  highest  spiritual  blessings 
only  by  a  free  act  of  confidence, — that  is,  by 
faith, — and  only  thus  can  we  retain  them.    And 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         l8l 

surely  He  whose  whole  life  rests  upon  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  fullest  trust  in  humanity  deserves  this 
trust  from  us.  For  it  was  only  the  assured  con- 
viction that  human  nature — kindred  to  God  even 
when  alienated  from  Him  and  involved  in  sin — 
was  still  capable  of  good  that  could  move  Him 
to  labor  for  the  moral  renovation  of  the  race. 
It  was  His  unfailing  faith  in  the  ultimate  triumph 
of  good  in  the  world  that  gave  Him  strength  to 
persevere  unto  the  end,  often  amid  circumstances 
in  which  bitter  experiences  seemed  to  foretell  the 
ultimate  failure  of  His  gracious  purposes.  As  no 
one,  in  pursuing  schemes  of  philanthropy,  ever 
encountered  such  fierce  opposition  as  He  did,  so 
no  one  ever  had  better  reason  to  despise  man- 
kind. And  yet  He  preserved  even  to  His  dying 
breath  a  faith  in  the  indestructible  element  of 
divinity  in  humanity,  as  no  one  had  ever  done 
before.  Even  upon  the  cross  to  which  men  had 
nailed  Him  He  did  not  despair  of  man,  and  His 
dying  prayer  bore  a  wondrous  testimony  to  this 
undying  faith.  In  that  same  spirit  of  confidence 
with  which  He  came  to  seek  us  must  we  seek 
Him.  If  He,  the  High  and  Holy  One,  never 
lost  sight  of  the  godlike  that  yet  remains  in  hu- 
man nature,  surely  it  becomes  men,  who  are  by 
Him  restored  to  God,  to  recognize  and  hail  with 
joy  the  divinity  which  was  manifested  in  His 
most  glorious  hfe ;  nor  will  they  indeed  fail  to 
do  this  so  long  as  there  exists  within  them  any, 
even  the  faintest,  susceptibility  to  what  is  holy  " 
{The  Sinlessness  of  Jesus,  pp.  io6,  107). 

III.  The  strength  and  strangeness  of  His  emotions. 

Now  and  then  we  meet  a  strong  man  who  has 
control  over  his  emotions  in  the  way  of  repression 


l82  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

and  to  some  little  extent  of  simulation  also,  but 
generally  there  is  a  large  range  of  involuntary 
and  uncontrolled  emotions  which  are  true  and 
unconscious  revelations  of  the  inner  life,  which 
they  express  and  manifest  or  betray.  From 
these  uncontrolled,  often  unconscious,  revealings 
it  is  not  difficult  to  distinguish  the  voluntary  and 
intentional  expressions  of  the  life  which  are  both 
prompted  and  bound  by  the  will.  In  Jesus  there 
was  no  contradiction  between  the  voluntary  and 
the  involuntary,  the  unconscious  and  the  con- 
trolled. All  the  manifestations  of  His  inner  hfe 
were  reliable  and  true,  and  they  constantly  in- 
crease our  awe  of  Him  and  our  sense  of  His 
majesty  and  mystery.  They  betray  nothing  that 
is  not  strong,  strange,  and  superhuman,  even  in 
its  humanity. 

To  Jesus  things  did  not  sustain  the  same  rela- 
tions among  themselves  or  to  life  which  they 
seem  to  us  to  sustain.  Their  proportions  were 
different.  He  responded  to  what  we  should  call 
small  or  trivial,  while  what  we  call  great  and 
momentous  He  seems  often  to  have  regarded  as 
of  Httle  consequence.  This  was  not  due  to  any 
absent-mindedness  or  lack  of  sympathy  with 
what  He  saw  and  touched.  He  was  most  deli- 
cately sensitive  to  all  influences.  Neither  He 
nor  His  Father  was  that  God  to  whom 

*'  Nor  sound  of  human  sorrow  mounts  to  mar 
His  sacred,  everlasting  calm." 

I.  He  responded  at  once  to  need.  Physical 
need  always  appealed  to  Him.  We  do  not  won- 
der at  this  as  a  heathen  would,  having  grown  so 
accustomed  to  the  philanthropy  which  was  bom 
of  the  Christian  faith.     But  Jesus  was  a  leader 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         1 83 

here.  He  felt  for  human  need  (Matt.  ix.  36 ; 
XV.  32).  He  was  moved  with  compassion  by 
the  vision  of  it  (John  v.  6).  He  felt  as  deeply 
for  the  spiritual  wants  of  men.  He  had  compas- 
sion on  the  people  who  were  as  sheep  having  no 
shepherd,  and  He  began  to  teach  them  (Mark 
vi.  34).  He  was  unable  to  bear  unmoved  the 
sight  of  the  lonely  widow  moving  out  of  the  city 
of  Nain  with  her  only  son  before  her  on  the  bier 
(Luke  vii.  13). 

2.  His  appreciation  of  the  truths  and  graces 
which  He  found  others  to  possess  was  excessive. 
A  centurion's  simple  taich  in  the  sovereignty  of 
God  He  declared  was  unsurpassed  in  Israel 
(Luke  vii.  9).  A  confession  of  Simon's  which 
went  beyond  any  faith  theretofore  expressed 
called  forth  the  enthusiastic  reply,  "  Blessed  art 
thou,  Simon  Bar-Jonah  :  for  flesh  and  blood  hath 
not  revealed  it  unto  thee,  but  My  Father  which 
is  in  heaven.  And  I  also  say  unto  thee,  that 
thou  art  Peter,  and  upon  this  rock  I  will  build 
My  church;  and  the  gates  of  Hades  shall  not 
prevail  against  it.  I  will  give  unto  thee  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  heaven :  and  whatsoever 
thou  shalt  bind  on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  hea- 
ven :  and  whatsoever  thou  shalt  loose  on  earth 
shall  be  loosed  in  heaven"  (Matt.  xvi.  17-19). 
At  the  end  of  His  hfe  He  greeted  the  gentle 
word  of  a  thief,  who  was  crucified  with  Him, 
with  an  immediate  assurance  of  a  loving  wel- 
come that  day  into  Paradise  (Luke  xxiii.  41-43). 

3.  His  grief  and  astonishment  at  the  spiritual 
blindness  of  others  were  intense.  He  marveled  at 
the  conduct  of  men  who  shut  their  eyes  to  what 
was  most  real  and  present  to  Him.  The  hard- 
ness of  their  hearts  filled  Him  with  a  sad  anger 
and  grief  (Mark  iii.  5).     They  wilfully  resisted 


1 84  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

His  intimations,  His  open  declarations,  and  so 
His  intense  desire  to  help  them  was  thrown  back 
into  an  attitude  of  indignant  but  surprised  antag- 
onism, a  perplexed  and  baffled  sympathy  "over 
the  callousness  of  their  hearts."  He  marveled 
also  at  the  unbelief  of  those  whose  lack  of  faith 
cost  them  the  priceless  blessings  which  He  was 
scattering  wherever  believing  hearts  would  re- 
ceive them  (Mark  vi.  6).  ''He  had  no  experi- 
mental acquaintance  with  such  an  unreasonable 
state  of  mind,"  says  Cardinal  Cajetan,  "and  there- 
fore His  wonder  was  real."  This  may  seem 
inconsistent  with  the  clear  and  accurate  insight 
into  the  human  heart  which  He  possessed,  but 
just  in  proportion  to  reason  is  the  surprise  occa- 
sioned by  unreasonableness.  The  prophets  attrib- 
ute to  God  surprise  at  the  unreasonableness 
and  obliquity  of  sin.  The  nearer  the  divine, 
the  greater  the  amazement  at  men's  want  of 
sympathy  with  divinity  At  the  request  for  a 
physical  sign  while  He  Himself,  the  living  and 
infinite  sign,  stood  before  them.  He  sighed  deep- 
ly in  His  spirit,  literally  "  groaned  up  inwardly  " 
from  the  depths  of  His  spirit,  the  inner  commu- 
nion alone  furnishing  a  sphere  in  which  He  could 
adequately  express  His  surprise  (Mark  viii.  12). 
Twice  He  broke  forth  in  lamentations  over  the 
bhndness  and  impenitence  of  Chorazin  and  Beth- 
saida  (Luke  x.  13-15;  Matt.  xi.  21-24).  The 
condition  of  these  Gahlean  towns,  from  one  of 
which  at  least  three  of  His  apostles  came  (John 
i.  44),  lay  near  His  heart,  and  He  publicly 
mourned  over  it  and  pronounced  His  solemn 
"  woes "  from  time  to  time,  as  the  thought  of 
His  rejected  assistance  recurred  to  Him.  The 
last  night  of  His  life,  while  sitting  peacefully  at 
supper  with  His  disciples  and  talking  quietly  to 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS  I05 

them,  He  was  suddenly  "troubled  m  the  spirit'' 
(John  xiii.  2 1 ).  The  thought  of  the  coming  trea- 
son, whispered  to  Him  by  the  Spirit,  darkened  His 
soul.  And  in  the  spirit,  the  highest  region  of  life, 
Jesus  was  troubled,  appalled  at  the  approach  of  the 
great  spiritual  catastrophe  by  which  He  was  to  be 
slain  and  one  of  His  own  apostles  was  to  sell  his 
soul.  The  divine  ingenuousness  of  Jesus'  emotions 
is  well  shown  here.  A  man  having  such  knowledge 
as  this  of  his  coming  betrayal,  desiring  to  retain 
the  confidence  and  obedience  of  his  followers, 
and  knowing  that  the  end  could  not  be  avoided, 
would  have  muffled  the  appearance  of  emotion. 
Forewarned,  he  would  have  composed  himself 
to  meet  the  end  in  silence  To  the  nature  of 
Jesus,  however,  dupHcity  was  a  stranger. 

Why  did  Jesus  weep  before  the  grave  of  Laz- 
arus? When  He  saw  Mary  weeping,  and  the 
Jews  also  who  came  with  her,  "  He  groaned  in 
the  spirit,  and  was  troubled."  Literally  He 
"troubled  Himself,"  checking  His  first  instinct, 
which  was  to  exert  His  divine  power  at  once, 
and  bringing  Himself  into  complete  sympathy 
with  the  sorrow  He  came  to  relieve.  And  then 
Jesus  wept.  Why?  From  indignation  at  the 
hypocritical  mourning  of  the  Jews?  Moved  by 
the  sight  of  such  deep  sorrow?  In  ^vrath  at  the 
temporary  triumph  of  death?  Was  it  not  because 
of  the  loneHness  in  which  He  stood,  no  one  un- 
derstanding Him,  no  one  understanding  the  life 
which  He  represented,  which  He  was,  no  one 
having  sympathy — full  and  understanding  sym- 
pathy— with  the  great  world  of  life  and  spirit 
which  encircled  and  invited,  and  which  in  Him 
had  come  near?  Did  He  not  weep  for  the  death 
of  the  people,  for  their  deadness  t(7  fl^©  life  and 
H.Gjht  of  God?  (John  xi.  33-38). 


1 86  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

4.  The  emotions  of  Jesus  are  not  less  signifi- 
cant when  viewed  as  to  their  source.  Sometimes 
they  spring  from  acquired  knowledge  (Matt.  ix. 
36 ;  Luke  vii.  9).  At  other  times  they  result 
from  a  perfect  spiritual  sympathy  or  discrimina- 
tion (John  i.  47  ;  v.  42).  Sometimes  they  rest 
upon  absolute  knowledge  (John  vi.  61  ;  xiii.  11, 
21). 

5.  The  emotions  of  Jesus  are  of  greatest  in- 
terest, however,  as  we  study  them  in  His  own 
spiritual  life. 

{a)  Of  His  emotions  in  the  wilderness  during 
the  temptation  we  know  nothing.  We  do  know, 
however,  that  it  was  a  fiery  trial  in  utter  loneli- 
ness, the  wild  beasts  His  only  companions,  save 
as  angels  ministered  unto  Him  (Mark  i.  12,  13). 
The  fearful  experiences  of  these  days  have  al- 
ways appealed  powerfully  to  the  imagination  and 
emotion  of  the  Church.  The  writer  of  JVb/  071 
Calvary  even  regards  the  real  redemptive  work 
of  Christ  as  done  in  the  wilderness  rather  than 
on  the  cross! 

{b)  He  met  the  news  of  the  death  of  John  the 
Baptist,  the  greatest  man  of  all  time  before  Jesus 
(Matt.  xi.  11),  and  the  one  who  best  understood 
Him  (John  i.  29,  2>Z^  Z\\  with  no  expressions  of 
open  grief,  but  with  a  serious  and  solemn  calm- 
ness which  is  the  greatest  emotion  (Matt.  xiv. 
12-14).  Perhaps  partly  for  the  sake  of  prudence, 
His  hour  having  not  yet  come.  He  withdrew  into 
the  wilderness.  Jesus  was  willing  to  forego, 
however,  the  pleasure  of  solitude  at  such  a  time 
of  apprehension  and  sorrow,  that  He  might  be 
of  practical  aid  to  the  multitudes  who  flocked  to 
Him,  and  on  whom  He  had  compassion. 

{c)  The  knowledge  of  the  ravages  of  sin  in  the 
world  caused  Him  constant  sorrow.     When  He 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         1 87 

healed  the  deaf  man  who  had  an  impediment  in 
his  speech,  He  looked  up  to  heaven  and  groaned, 
"  sorwide  withy nne,"  as  Wydif  says,  at  the  sight 
not  of  the  one  sufferer  only,  but  of  the  innumer- 
able woes  with  which  sin  has  bathed  itself  in  ret- 
ribution (Mark  vii.  34). 

{d)  His  love  for  Jerusalem,  as  the  representa- 
tive of  the  nation,  was  intense.  Twice  He  apos- 
trophized the  city,  bewailing  its  refusal  of  its 
true  King  and  the  miseries  which  its  blindness 
would  bring  upon  it.  In  Perea,  as  He  was  "  on 
His  way  through  cities  and  villages,  teaching, 
and  journeying  on  unto  Jerusalem  "  (Luke  xiii. 
22),  the  visit  of  some  Pharisees  called  forth  the 
first  outburst  of  lamentation  over  the  obduracy 
of  the  city,  even  when  the  poetry  of  its  presence 
did  not  excite  emotion  (Luke  xiii.  34,  35).  Dur- 
ing the  last  week  of  His  hfe  this  love  and  longing 
for  Jerusalem  broke  forth  again.  It  was  on  the 
way  from  Bethany.  "  The  procession  advanced. 
The  road  descends  a  slight  declivity,  and  the 
ghmpse  of  the  city  is  again  withdrawn  behind 
the  intervening  ridge  of  Ohvet.  A  few  moments 
and  the  path  mounts  again;  it  climbs  a  rugged 
ascent,  it  reaches  a  ledge  of  smooth  rock,  and  in 
an  instant  the  whole  city  bursts  into  view  "  (Stan- 
ley, Sinai  and  Palestifie,  chap.  iii.).  And  when 
Jesus  saw  the  city  He  "  wept  over  it,  saying.  If 
thou  hadst  known  in  this  day,  even  thou,  the 
things  which  belong  unto  peace!  but  now  they 
are  hid  from  thine  eyes  "  (Luke  xix.  41-44).  He 
was  the  bridegroom  of  no  mortal  heart,  but  He 
wept  at  His  rejection  by  the  bride  He  came  to 
win:  "Jerusalem,  O  Jerusalem!" 

6.  He  had  an  overwhelming  consciousness  of 
the  presence  of  God.  Brother  Lawrence  and 
other  men  have  acquired  a  measure  of  this  con- 


1 88  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

sciousness  by  long  discipline  and  experience.  It 
was  given  to  Jesus  without  measure ;  His  whole 
life  was  full  of  it.  "  The  Father  hath  not  left 
Me  alone,"  said  He  (John  viii.  29).  In  the 
midst  of  great  throngs  He  turned  easily  to  God, 
to  whom  He  would  speak  as  to  one  near  at 
hand.  One  of  His  most  sweet  and  winning 
prayers  was  spoken  thus  (Matt.  xi.  25,  26).  We 
see  this  best,  however,  in  His  high-priestly  prayer 
(John  xvii.).  Pastor  Harms  was  brought  to  faith 
in  Christ  by  reading  this  prayer — His  prayer  of 
consecration  and  fellowship,  rising  into  the  flood- 
burst  of  a  full  revelation,  speaking  of  a  con- 
sciousness of  God  explicable  only  on  the  ground 
of  a  knowledge  of  God  never  attained  by  man,  a 
prayer  so  solemn,  so  holy,  so  full  of  an  awe- 
breathing  divinity  that  we  stop  before  it  in  won- 
der to  ask,  **  Can  these  be  the  lips  of  a  man 
speaking?  Is  not  this  rather  the  palpitating 
heart  of  the  very  God  laid  bare?" 

7.  He  had  from  the  beginning  a  weird  con- 
sciousness of  His  approaching  death.  He  fre- 
quently spoke  of  it  to  His  disciples  (Luke  ix. 
22-27,  31,  43-45;  xviii.  31-34).  But  He  evi- 
dently often  thought  of  it  when  He  did  not 
speak  of  it,  and  the  knowledge  of  it  tinged  His 
conduct  at  times  with  a  strange  and  awful  sad- 
ness. When  He  and  His  disciples  were  in  the 
way  going  up  to  Jerusalem,  He  pressed  on  in 
advance  with  high  resolve  toward  the  final  scene 
of  the  great  struggle.  He  foresaw  all  that  was 
coming,  and  through  the  heavy  shadows  He 
beheld  "  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him."  As 
He  thought  on  it  His  white  face  grew  whiter, 
the  transfiguration  look  would  come  back,  the 
lines  of  His  face  were  tense,  and  His  step  quick- 
ened, while  the  delicate  but  unwearying  frame 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         1 89 

drew  itself  more  firmly  together  and  bore  yet 
more  unmistakably  the  majesty  of  the  divine 
glory.  The  disciples  were  amazed,  while  those 
who  followed  regarded  Him  as  unearthly.  As 
He  strode  along  their  reverence  deepened  into 
awe,  under  which  they  trembled  and  were  afraid. 

Often  He  hinted  at  the  coming  end  of  the 
drama.  Andrew  and  Philip  brought  some  Greeks 
to  Him  in  the  Temple ;  they  wished  to  see  Him 
(John  xii.  20-28).  His  answer  was  a  foreboding 
of  His  own  death ;  it  involved  far  more  than  the 
admission  of  the  Greeks  to  His  presence.  The 
extension  of  the  gospel  to  the  world,  of  which 
the  Greeks  were  the  representatives,  rested  on 
His  death  and  His  rejection  by  His  own  people. 
To  a  true  nature  foreknowledge  intensifies  sor- 
row, but  when  Jesus  knew  that  the  hour  was 
come  when  He  was  to  depart  out  of  the  world 
to  the  Father,  in  the  knowledge  of  His  disciples' 
suffering  He  forgot  His  own  (John  xiii.  i). 
Though  Jesus  knew  of  His  approaching  death 
and  lived  under  the  shadow  of  it.  He  was  ever 
of  quiet  and  peaceful  spirit,  more  intent  on  com- 
forting others  than  seeking  comfort  for  Himself. 

8.  In  no  human  experience  has  there  ever  been 
such  suffering  as  Jesus  passed  through  in  the 
Garden  of  Gethsemane  (Matt,  xxvi,  36-46).  It  is 
not  strange  that  the  hearts  of  Christian  men  turn 
always  in  hush  and  humility  to  this  scene  when 

**  'Tis  midnight,  and  on  Olive's  brow 

The  star  is  dimmed  that  lately  shone. 
'Tis  midnight ;  in  the  garden  now 
The  suffering  Saviour  prays  alone. 

**  'Tis  midnight,  and,  from  all  removed, 
The  Saviour  wrestles  lone  with  fears ; 
Even  that  disciple  whom  He  loved 

Heeds  not  His  Master's  grief  and  tears." 


igo  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

This  is  one  suggestive  feature  of  this  experi- 
ence. The  disciples  are  weary  and  exhausted, 
worn  out  by  what  they  have  passed  through. 
Though  the  pressure  upon  Him  has  been  incal- 
culable, ^esus  is  still  strong  enough  to  enter  this 
awful  conflict.  It  was  a  true  agony  (Luke  xxii. 
44). 

"  'Tis  midnight,  and  for  others'  guilt 

The  Man  of  Sorrows  weeps  in  blood." 

The  physical  signs  betokened  the  strength  of  the 
inward  struggle.  "In  the  Garden  of  Gethsem- 
ane,"  says  Stroud,  "  Christ  endured  mental  ag- 
ony so  intense  that,  had  it  not  been  limited  by 
divine  interposition,  it  would  probably  have 
destroyed  His  life  without  the  aid  of  any  other 
sufferings ;  but  having  been  thus  mitigated,  its 
effects  were  confined  to  violent  palpitation  of 
the  heart  accompanied  with  bloody  sweat.  Dr. 
MilHngen's  explanation  of  the  bloody  sweat  is 
judicious.  *  It  is  probable,' says  he,  'that  this 
strange  disorder  arises  from  a  violent  commotion 
of  the  nervous  system  turning  the  streams  of 
blood  out  of  their  natural  course,  and  forcing 
the  red  particles  into  the  cutaneous  excretories '  '* 
(T/ie  Physical  Cause  of  the  Death  of  Christ). 

The  whole  occasion  of  this  remarkable  expe- 
rience was  within  Jesus.  He  was  free  to  go 
away  from  Jerusalem  if  He  wished.  He  was 
not  yet  under  arrest.  There  was  no  sign  of  any 
deadly  opposition.  His  disciples  were  round 
about  Him,  and  only  a  little  while  before  great 
multitudes  had  hailed  Him  as  the  King  of  Israel 
(John  xii.  12-15).  He  was  the  most  composed 
and  peaceful  person  present  at  His  crucifixion ; 
but  in  the  quiet  seclusion  of  the  oHve-yard,  alone 
save  for  His  friends,  He  endured  such  intense 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        I9I 

suffering  as  no  man  ever  had  the  sensibility  to 
undergo.  Why  was  this?  We  may  dismiss  at 
once  the  suggestion  that  Jesus  was  shrinking 
from  death  because  He  was  young,  as  Stalker 
suggests,  and  desired  to  live  and  visit  nations 
beyond  the  bounds  of  Palestine,  and  because  to 
have  "  the  light  and  warmth  of  life  quenched  in 
the  cold  waters  of  death  must  have  been  utteriy 
repugnant  to  Him."  We  cannot  believe  Jesus 
to  have  been  lacking  in  the  courage  which  hun- 
dreds of  His  disciples  have  displayed ;  the  thought 
is  wholly  repugnant  to  us.  He  was  doubtless 
appalled  by  the  thought  of  what  the  Jewish  peo- 
ple were  about  to  do,  murdering  their  Messiah, 
and  by  the  same  act  plunging  the  nation  in  the 
grave  of  the  suicide.  His  intense  sensibihty  of 
the  damning  sin  about  to  be  committed  in  the 
crucifixion  of  the  one  perfect  Being  who  had 
lived  in  the  world  undoubtedly  made  the  suffer- 
ing of  this  night  almost  unendurable.  What  can 
be  more  fearful  to  a  holy  soul  than  the  absolute 
rejection  of  holiness?  But  though  Jesus'  agony 
finds  partial  explanation  in  this  way,  does  not 
the  writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  suggest 
the  fuller  explanation  in  his  words,  "  Who  in  the 
days  of  His  flesh,  having  offered  up  prayers  and 
supplications  with  strong  crying  and  tears  unto 
Him  that  was  able  to  save  Him  from  death,  and 
having  been  heard  for  His  godly  fear  though  He 
was  a  Son,  yet  learned  obedience  by  the  things 
which  He  suffered"?  (Heb.  v.  7,  8).  Jesus 
feared  that  He  would  not  live  through  this 
awful  night  and  the  physical  strain  to  which 
He  was  subjected,  in  order  that  He  might 
finish  His  work  upon  the  cross.  What  He 
feared  was  not  death  on  the  cross,  but  death 
before  the  cross.    He  longed  to  complete,  not  to 


192  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

escape,  His  mission,  and  God  heard  Him  and 
brought  Him  through  the  deep  waters  as  one 
who  was  red  in  His  apparel  and  had  trodden 
the  wine-press  alone.  Triumph  crowned  the 
agony  of  the  Saviour. 

**  He  that  hath  in  anguish  knelt 
Is  not  forsaken  by  His  God. 

**  'Tis  midnight,  and  from  ether  plains 
Is  borne  the  song  that  angels  know ; 
Unheard  by  mortals  are  the  strains 

That  sweetly  soothe  the  Saviour's  woe.*' 

From  this  scene  of  unfathomable  suffering 
Jesus  went  out,  by  it  attested  to  be  the  Son  of 
the  Highest  if  '*  the  mark  of  rank  in  nature  is 
capacity  for  pain,"  and  the  Captain  of  the  salva- 
tion of  that  humanity  of  which  He  called  Him- 
self the  Son,  and  which  was  shown  by  Him  to 
be  capable  of  exaltation  to  the  highest,  which 
had  in  turn  found  its  greatest  glory  in  the  abase- 
ment of  the  incarnation. 

g.  What  was  His  mien  as  He  marched  to 
Calvary?  Some  have  supposed  that  He  walked 
like  a  conqueror,  and  that  the  journey  looked  so 
like  a  triumphal  procession  as  Jesus,  bearing  His 
cross,  went  forth  that  the  cross  was  taken  from 
Him  and  laid  on  Simon  of  Cyrene.  But  the 
effects  of  the  scourging  and  the  bitter  trials 
through  which  He  had  passed  more  probably  left 
Him  too  weak  to  assume  the  dignity  of  an  earthly 
conqueror,  for  which,  in  any  event,  He  had  no 
taste,  and  the  imphcation  of  Mark's  account  is 
rather  that  He  was  led  with  lowly  aspect  and 
too  weak  from  the  abuse  heaped  upon  Him  to 
bear  the  weight  of  His  own  cross  (Mark  xv.  20- 
22).     Still  there  was  upon   His  face  a  divine 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         1 93 

composure  and  an  appeal  to  the  sympathy  and 
love  of  men  so  strong  and  sweet  even  in  this 
hour  that  a  great  company  of  women,  not 
bHnded  by  high-priestly  bigotry,  followed  Him 
and  bewailed  and  lamented  Him  (Luke  xxiii. 
27).  But  He  was  master  of  Himself,  and  once, 
again  looked  with  compassion  over  the  multi- 
tude, now  more  than  ever  as  sheep  without  a 
shepherd,  and  showed  at  once  both  His  solici- 
tude for  them  and  His  glad  and  holy  joy  that 
the  Shepherd  could  lay  down  His  hfe  for  the 
sheep  (Luke  xxiii.  28). 

10.  In  His  death  He  showed  no  fear  or  falter- 
ing, but  only  a  steady  and  subhme  fortitude. 
Emotions  of  sorrow  and  unrest  gave  place  to  the 
exultant  but  self-contained  gratulations  of  victory 
and  peace  and  power.  It  is  true  that  He  cried 
out  in  the  midst  of  the  three  hours  of  darkness, 
"  My  God,  My  God,  why  didst  Thou  forsake 
Me?"  (Mark  xv.  34).  But  was  not  the  forsak- 
ing a  thing  of  the  past?  Does  Mrs.  Browning 
quite  catch  the  meaning  in  ''  Cowper's  Grave  "  ? 

"Deserted!   God  could  separate  from  His  own  essence 

rather ; 
And  Adam's  sins  have  swept  between  the  righteous  Son 

and  Father ; 
Yea,  once  Immanuel's  orphaned  cry  His  universe  hath 

shaken. 
It  went  up  single,  echoless,  *  My  God,  I  am  forsaken!' 

*'  It  went  up  from  the  holy  lips  amid  His  lost  creation, 
That,  of  the  lost,  no  son  should  use  those  words  of 

desolation ; 
That  earth's  worst  frenzies,  marring  hope,  should  mar 
not  hope's  fruition." 

Was  not  the  cry  a  cry  of  victory?     If  He  was 
left  alone,  no  word  of  it  escaped  His  lips  till  He 


194  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

was  with  God  again.  It  was  an  awful  experi- 
ence through  which  He  passed,  if  in  any  sense 
God  forsook  Him  in  it.  No  wonder  that  the 
world  shrouded  itself  in  night.  But  these  words 
tell  more  of  His  immense  sense  of  reHef,  of  free- 
dom, of  communion  so  close,  so  sweet,  that  His 
final  words, ''  Father,  into  Thy  hands  I  commend 
My  spirit"  (Luke  xxiii.  46),  are  a  simple,  near 
transference  of  Himself  to  God,  a  lying  gently 
down  in  His  arms  as  a  little  child,  wearied  with 
the  day,  sinks  soft  to  sleep.  And  He  was  at 
rest  in  Him  to  whom  He  did  not  need  to  go, 
because,  as  He  said,  in  some  true  sense,  ''The 
Father  hath  not  left  Me  alone"  (John  viii.  29). 
Was  the  inner  life  revealed  in  these  emotions 
of  Jesus  the  life  of  a  man?  Do  men  feel  so? 
Surely  we  comprehend  His  emotions  only  as  we 
understand  that  He  saw  as  in  God.  His  vision 
of  the  world  was  as  He  saw  it  reflected  in  His 
Father.  Every  glance  of  His  rested  on  the  Fa- 
ther's face.  This  was  John's  explanation  of  His 
life  (John  i.  i) :  6  Xoyog  tjv  irpbg  rbv  Osov.  The 
face  of  the  everlasting  Word  was  ever  directed 
toward  the  face  of  the  everlasting  Father.  There 
is  such  a  vision.  Happy  are  they  who  see  all 
ihings  not  in  themselves,  but  in  the  face  of  God, 
who  have  met  and  learned  the  secret  of  him 
whose 

**  Name  was  heavenly  Contemplation. 
Of  God  and  goodness  was  his  meditation ; 
Great  grace  that  old  man  to  him  given  had, 
For  God  he  often  saw  from  heaven's  height. 
All  were  his  earthly  eyes  both  blunt  and  bad, 
And  thro'  great  age  had  lost  their  kindly  sight ; 
Yet  wondrous  quick  and  pursuant  was  his  spright, 
As  eagle's  eye  that  can  behold  the  sun." 

With  no  such  loss  of  lower  sight,  all  the  doors 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         1 95 

of  Jesus'  soul  were  open  toward  the  unseen  and 
eternal  city,  and  the  source  of  His  human  emo- 
tions was  a  superhuman  view  of  things  and  per- 
sons, nature  and  hfe,  space  and  time,  in  their 
inner  and  true  qualities  and  relations. 

With  that  marvelous  spiritual  insight  which 
made  him  one  of  the  greatest  prophets  of  his 
time,  Browning  draws  the  picture  of  some  such 
life  as  this,  only  different,  in  ''An  Epistle  Contain- 
ing the  Strange  Medical  Experience  of  Karshish." 
Whether  a  true  interpretation  of  the  Hfe  of  Laz- 
arus after  his  resurrection  or  not,  Browning's 
picture  still  appeals  to  us  as  a  true  psychological 
study  of  the  result  of  the  appHcationof  the  di- 
vine standards  and  relations  to  human  interests 
and  life. 

"  The  man's  own  firm  conviction  rests 
That  he  was  dead  (in  fact,  they  buried  him) — 
That  he  was  dead  and  then  restored  to  life 
By  a  Nazarene  physician  of  his  tribe : 
—  'Sayeth,  the  same  bade  *  Rise,'  and  he  did  rise. 
'  Such  cases  are  diurnal,'  thou  wilt  cry. 
Not  so  this  figment! — not,  that  such  a  fume, 
Instead  of  giving  way  to  time  and  health, 
Should  eat  itself  into  the  life  of  life, 
As  saffron  tingeth  flesh,  blood,  bones,  and  all! 
For  see  how  he  takes  up  the  after-life. 
The  man — it  is  one  Lazarus,  a  Jew, 
Sanguine,  proportioned,  fifty  years  of  age, 
The  body's  habit  wholly  laudable, 
As  much,  indeed,  beyond  the  common  health 
As  he  were  made  and  put  aside  to  show. 
Think,  could  we  penetrate  by  any  drug, 
And  bathe  the  wearied  soul  and  worried  flesh, 
And  bring  it  clear  and  fair,  by  three  days'  sleep! 
Whence  has  the  man  the  balm  that  brightens  all? 
This  grown  man  eyes  the  world  now  like  a  child. 


Look!  if  a  beggar,  in  fixed  middle  life, 
Should  find  a  treasure,   .  .  . 


l<)6  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

So  here — we  call  the  treasure  knowledge,  say, 
Increased  beyond  the  fleshly  faculty- 
Heaven  opened  to  a  soul  while  yet  on  earth, 
Earth  forced  on  a  soul's  use  while  seeing  heaven : 
The  man  is  witless  of  the  size,  the  sum. 
The  value  in  proportion  of  all  things. 
Or  whether  it  be  little  or  be  much. 
Discourse  to  him  of  prodigious  armaments 
Assembled  to  besiege  his  city  now. 
And  of  the  passing  of  a  mule  with  gourds— 
'Tis  one!      Then  take  it  on  the  other  side. 
Speak  of  some  trifling  fact— he  will  gaze  rapt 
With  stupor  at  its  very  littleness 
(Far  as  I  see),  as  if  in  that,  indeed, 
He  caught  prodigious  import,  whole  results ; 
And  so  will  turn  to  us,  the  bystanders. 
In  ever  the  same  stupor  (note  this  point) 
That  we  too  see  not  with  his  opened  eyes. 
Wonder  and  doubt  come  wrongly  into  play, 
Preposterously,  at  cross-purposes. 
Should  his  child  sicken  unto  death — why,  look 
For  scarce  abatement  of  his  cheerfulness, 
Or  pretermission  of  the  daily  craft! 
While  a  word,  gesture,  glance  from  that  same  child, 
At  play,  or  in  the  school,  or  laid  asleep. 
Will  startle  him  to  an  agony  of  fear. 
Exasperation,  just  as  like.     Demand 
The  reason  why — '  'Tis  but  a  word;'  object — 
*  A  gesture  ' :  he  regards  thee  as  our  lord. 
Who  lived  there  in  the  pyramid  alone. 
Looked  at  us  (dost  thou  mind?)  when,  being  young, 
We  both  would  unadvisedly  recite 
Some  charm's  beginning,  from  that  book  of  his. 
Able  to  bid  the  sun  throb  wide  and  burst 
All  into  stars,  as  suns  grown  old  are  wont. 
Thou  and  the  child  have  each  a  veil  alike 
Thrown  o'er  your  heads,  from  under  which  ye  both 
Stretch  your  blind  hands  and  trifle  with  a  match 
Over  a  mine  of  Greek  fire,  did  ye  know! 
He  holds  on  firmly  to  some  thread  of  life — 
(It  is  the  life  to  lead  perforcedly) 
Which  runs  across  some  vast  distracting  orb 
Of  glory  on  either  side  that  meager  thread, 
Which,  conscious  of,  he  must  not  enter  yet — 
The  spiritual  life  around  the  earthly  life : 
The  law  of  that  is  known  to  him  as  this. 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         1 97 

His  heart  and  brain  move  there,  his  feet  stay  here, 
So  is  the  man  perplext  with  impulses 
Sudden  to  start  off  crosswise,  not  straight  ou, 
Proclaiming  what  is  right  and  wrong  across, 
And  not  along,  this  black  thread  through  the  blaze— 
'  It  should  be '  balked  by  *  here  it  cannot  be.' 
And  oft  the  man's  soul  springs  into  his  face 
As  if  he  saw  again  and  heard  again 
His  sage  that  bade  him  *  Rise,'  and  he  did  rise. 
Something,  a  word,  a  tick  o'  the  blood  within, 
Admonishes ;  then  back  he  sinks  at  once 
To  ashes,  who  was  very  fire  before. 
In  sedulous  recurrence  to  his  trade 
Whereby  he  earneth  him  the  daily  bread  ; 
And  studiously  the  humbler  for  that  pride, 
Professedly  the  faultier  that  he  knows 
God's  secret,  while  he  holds  the  thread  of  life. 
Indeed,  the  especial  marking  of  the  man 
Is  prone  submission  to  the  heavenly  will — 
Seeing  it,  what  it  is  and  why  it  is. 
'Sayeth,  he  will  wait  patient  to  the  last 
For  that  same  death  which  must  restore  his  being 
To  equilibrium,  body  loosening  soul. 
Divorced  even  now  by  premature  full  growth : 
He  will  live — nay,  it  pleaseth  him  to  live — 
So  long  as  God  please,  and  just  how  God  please. 
He  even  seeketh  not  to  please  God  more 
(Which  meaneth,  otherwise)  than  as  God  please. 
Hence,  I  perceive  not  he  affects  to  preach 
The  doctrine  of  his  sect,  whate'er  it  be. 
Make  proselytes,  as  madmen  thirst  to  do : 
How  can  he  give  his  neighbor  the  real  ground, 
His  own  conviction?     Ardent  as  he  is — 
Call  his  great  truth  a  lie,  why,  still  the  old 
*  Be  it  as  God  please  '  reassureth  him. 
I  probed  the  sore  as  thy  disciple  should  : 
'  How,  beast,'  said  I,  '  this  stolid  carelessness 
Sufiiceth  thee,  when  Rome  is  on  her  march 
To  stamp  out,  like  a  little  spark,  thy  town, 
Thy  tribe,  thy  crazy  tale,  and  thee  at  once? ' 
He  merely  looked  with  his  large  eyes  on  me. 
The  man  is  apathetic,  you  deduce? 
Contrariwise,  he  loves  both  old  and  young, 
Able  and  weak,  affects  the  very  brutes 
And  birds —how  say  I?  flowers  of  the  field- 
As  a  wise  workman  recognizes  tools 


198  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

In  a  master's  workshop,  loving  what  they  make. 

Thus  is  the  man  as  harmless  as  a  lamb : 

Only  impatient,  let  him  do  his  best, 

At  ignorance  and  carelessness  and  sin — 

An  indignation  which  is  promptly  curbed : 

As  when  in  certain  travel  I  have  feigned 

To  be  an  ignoramus  in  our  art, 

According  to  some  preconceived  design, 

And  happed  to  hear  the  land's  practitioners, 

Steeped  in  conceit,  sublimed  by  ignorance, 

Prattle  fantastically  on  disease, 

Its  cause  and  cure — and  I  must  hold  my  peace!" 

Only  Jesus  showed  that  He  was  more  than 
man  by  His  abiHty  to  adapt  Himself  to  the  Hm- 
itations  which  the  incarnation  imposed. 

IV.  His  superhuman  knowledge. 

The  evangelists  all  represent  Jesus  as  moving 
among  men  with  a  knowledge  of  their  needs  and 
their  characters  that  was  accurate  and  full.  They 
suggest  often  a  mysterious  knowledge,  which  they 
allege  He  possessed,  of  matters  not  in  the  scope  of 
ordinary  powers.  He  is  reputed  to  have  known 
that  a  certain  fish  in  the  sea  would  have  a  piece 
of  money  of  a  certain  denomination  in  its  mouth 
(Matt.  xvii.  27);  that  an  ass  and  a  colt  never 
ridden  would  be  tied  at  a  certain  place,  and 
would  be  allowed  to  go  with  His  disciples  (Mark 
xi.  2).  He  knows  who  out  of  a  great  crowd  has 
touched  Him  with  the  touch  of  faith  (Luke  viii. 
47).  He  is  declared  to  have  possessed  a  know- 
ledge not  alone  resulting  from  His  taking  care- 
ful note  of  peculiarities  of  action  and  character 
manifested  to  the  eye  of  those  around  Him, — 
such  knowledge  as  any  man  possesses  in  a  mea- 
sure,— but  itself  intuitive,  a  fruit  of  that  broad 
knowledge  which  He  had  in  knowing  God.    He 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         1 99 

knew  in  Himself,  in  His  own  self-consciousness, 
not  needing  to  reason  inferentially  or  to  seek  the 
testimony  of  His  outer  senses  (Mark  v.  30).  He 
knew  in  His  spirit,  in  virtue  of  it  and  by  means 
of  it  seeing  through  all  veils  and  mists  (Mark  ii. 
8).  He  saw  things  as  they  really  were.  Mate- 
rialisms were  transparent  to  Him;  so  were  the 
spiritual  inwrappings  of  the  most  self-involved 
hearts. 

John  exhibits  this  attribute  of  complete  human 
knowledge  most  fully,  and  dwells  on  it  as  ex- 
plaining Christ's  action  at  critical  times.  He 
describes  His  knowledge  both  as  relative,  ac- 
quired (jLyvL^GKEiv),  and  absolute,  possessed 
[eldevai).  "  In  some  cases  the  perception  seems 
(i)  gained  naturally  (John  vi.  15);  (2)  at  others 
as  the  result  of  a  peculiar  spiritual  insight  and 
sympathy  (John  ii.  24,  25;  v.  42;  x.  14).  The 
absolute  knowledge  is  shown  (i)  in  connection 
with  divine  things  (John  iii.  11  ;  v.  32  ;  vii.  29; 
viii.  55;  xi.  42;  xii.  50);  (2)  with  the  facts  of 
the  Lord's  being  (John  vi.  6 ;  viii.  14 ;  xiii.  1,3; 
xix.  28) ;  (3)  and  also  in  relation  to  that  which  is 
external  (John  vi.  64,  71  ;  xiii.  11,  18 ;  xviii.  4)  " 
(Westcott,  Bid/e  Commentary.  "St.  John's  Gos- 
pel," p.  46). 

So  full  was  Christ's  knowledge  that  only  on 
rare  occasions  did  He  ask  anything  as  if  all  were 
not  clear  before  His  eyes.  He  asked  how  many 
loaves  the  disciples  had  with  which  He  might 
feed  the  people  (Mark  viii.  5).  He  asked  where 
Lazarus  had  been  laid  (John  xi.  34).  He  came 
to  a  fig-tree  that  was  barren :  "  If  haply  He 
might  find  anything  thereon"  (Mark  xi,  13). 
In  the  main  everything  seemed  plain  to  Him, 
even  the  thoughts  of  men,  and  their  past  lives 
f  John  iv.  2q).     The  words  with  which  He  first 


200  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

addressed  Simon  were  a  revelation  to  Simon  of 
His  knowledge  of  his  soul's  longing :  "  Thou  art 
Simon:  thou  shalt  be  called  Rock"  (John  i. 
42).  "  Rock?  "  The  bystanders  would  look  at 
one  another  and  smile.  The  fickle,  unreliable 
Simon  a  rock?  But  Simon  knew  that  he  had  at 
last  been  found  by  one  who  was  fit  to  be  his 
Master,  who  knew  his  needs,  and  would  make 
him  what  He  called  him.  His  words  to  Nathan- 
ael  (John  i.  48,  49)  point  to  some  secret  thought 
or  prayer  of  his,  by  knowing  which  and  promis- 
ing the  fulfilment  of  which  the  Lord  showed 
Himself  and  His  insight  into  the  heart  of  man 
to  be  divine.  "  All  things,"  He  declared,  "  have 
been  delivered  unto  Me  of  My  Father  "  (Luke  x. 
22).  And  His  completeness  of  knowledge  He 
consummated  in  a  completeness  of  sacrifice ; 
among  all  things  knowing  the  best  thing,  the  joy 
of  self-sacrifice  for  men  (John  x.  15). 

His  closest  disciples,  who  surely  were  the  most 
competent  judges,  confirmed  His  claim  to  full- 
ness of  knowledge.  He  had  known,  on  or ' 
occasion,  and  answered  an  unexpressed  thought 
of  theirs  (John  xvi.  19).  This  seemed  to  them 
certain  evidence  that  all  was  open  before  Him : 
**  Now  we  know  that  Thou  knowest  all  things. 
...  By  this  we  believe  that  Thou  earnest  k)rth 
from  God"  (John  xvi.  30;  xxi.  17). 

Christ  knew  because  of  what  He  was.  Know- 
ledge lay  in  Him.  To  express  knowledge  was 
to  reveal  Himself,  for  in  Him  were  hidden  all 
treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge  (Col.  iii. 
3).  All  things  were  naked  and  open  to  His 
eyes  (Heb.  iv.  12,  13).  "We  may  conjecture," 
says  Hooker,  "how  the  powers  of  that  soul 
are   illuminated  which,    being  so  inward   unto 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         20I 

God,  cannot  choose  but  be  privy  unto  all  things 
which  God  maketh,  and  must  therefore  of  neces- 
sity be  endued  with  knowledge  so  far  forth  uni- 
versal." 

V.  He  recognized  and  asserted  His  own  uniqueness. 

I.  Nowhere  does  He  do  this  more  clearly 
than  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.  The  tone 
is  of  direct  self-assertion.  In  it  Jesus  does  not 
speculate  about  God  and  our  relations  and  du- 
ties "as  a  school  professor  drawing  out  conclu- 
sions by  a  practice  on  words,  and  deeming  that 
the  way  of  proof;  He  does  not  build  up  a 
frame  of  evidence  from  below  by  some  con- 
structive process  such  as  the  philosophers  delight 
in ;  but  He  simply  speaks  of  God  and  spiritual 
things  as  one  who  has  come  out  from  Him  to 
tell  us  what  He  knows."  It  is  the  voice  of  one 
speaking  with  authority,  as  the  people  observed, 
and  not  as  the  scribes  (Matt.  vii.  28,  29). 

The  important  declarations  of  the  sermon  are 
prefaced  with  the  words,  "  I  say  unto  you,"  as 
much  as  to  say,  "  Listen!  I,  who  have  authority, 
who  am  not  a  teacher  of  other  men's  opinions, 
who  am  unique  and  separate  among  you,  a  new 
guide  to  you,  say  this"  (Matt.  v.  18,  26,  28  ;  vi. 
2,  5,  16,  25,  29).  He  does  this  especially  when 
contrasting  the  new  teaching  with  the  old,  or 
with  current  interpretations  of  the  old,  as  much 
as  to  say,  "With  larger  light,  clearer  apprehen- 
sion, I  take  issue  with  what  you  have  been 
taught,  and  declare  to  you  another  and  a  larger 
doctrine."  He  does  this  regarding  the  interpre- 
tations of  the  sixth  and  seventh  commandments 
(Matt.  V.  21,  22,  27,  28),  prevalent  ideas  of  di- 


202  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

vorce  (Matt.  v.  31,  32),  oaths  (Matt.  v.  S3,  34), 
retaliation  (Matt.  v.  38,  39),  the  relations  of  men 
to  their  enemies  (Matt.  v.  43,  44). 

He  speaks  as  one  who  knows  the  purposes  of 
God  and  is  commissioned  to  speak  as  His  repre- 
sentative (Matt.  vi.  14,  15).  He  goes  so  far  as 
to  make  promises  in  God's  behalf  which  are 
most  sweeping  (Matt.  vii.  7). 

He  speaks  in  the  imperative  mood  (Matt.  vi. 
2  5>  33),  and  singles  Himself  out  as  an  unusual 
personage  with  relations  most  vital  and  impor- 
tant to  Jewish  life  and  faith  (Matt.  v.  17).  ''I 
am  come  to  fulfil."  He  claims  a  large  mission. 
"  He  is  to  fulfil  not  the  Messianic  predictions 
alone,  but  the  whole  of  the  earlier  revelation. 
He  is  to  make  perfect  the  law  and  the  prophets, 
not  only  by  accomplishing  in  His  own  person  the 
types  and  prophecies  relating  to  the  Messiah, 
but  also  by  establishing  a  '  kingdom  of  heaven ' 
for  which  the  old  covenant  was  a  preparation, 
and  giving  to  the  moral  commands  of  the  law  a 
fuller  significance  as  precepts  to  be  observed 
forever  in  the  Church  "  (Matt.  v.  17-20).  More 
than  this,  He  even  places  Himself  at  the  end  of 
the  world  and  declares  that  then  all  things  turn 
upon  Him,  that  His  decision  will  be  final  at  the 
judgment  of  men.  The  attitude  taken  toward 
His  declarations  will  be  the  great  test  and  dis- 
tinction of  character,  and  all  wrong  attitudes  and 
disobedient  souls  will  be  swept  away  as  unstable 
huts  on  the  sandy  banks  of  storming  torrents 
(Matt.  vii.  21-27). 

Even  in  the  Beatitudes,  to  which  the  stoutest 
deniers  of  Christ's  claims  take  no  exception,  His 
unique  assertiveness  appears.  He  declares  bless- 
ing like  a  king  scattering  his  favors,  promising 
the  kingdom  of  God  as  though  its  disposition 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        203 

were  in  His  hands.  Reproach  suffered  for  His 
sake,  He  says,  is  of  greater  glory,  and  holds  in 
its  bosom  promise  of  larger  honor  and  reward 
than  all  the  crowns  of  earth  can  afford.  He 
estabhshes  new  standards  with  what  would  be 
careless  thoughtlessness  were  His  words  not  the 
spontaneous  outburst,  the  overflow  of  an  uplifted 
soul  which  had  come  forth  from  God  and  spoke 
for  God  (Matt.  v.  3-12). 

Surely  they  err  who  believe  they  accept  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  yet  rob  Christ  of  His 
divinity. 

2.  John  the  Baptist  Jesus  regarded  as  the 
greatest  man  who  had  ever  lived;  yet  He  ac- 
cepted John's  homage  and  worship,  and  quoted 
regarding  him  the  words  of  Isaiah's  prophecy : 

"  Behold,  I  send  My  messenger  before  Thy  face,. 
Who  shall  prepare  Thy  way  before  Thee." 

(Luke  vii.  27,  28).  At  the  same  time  He  added 
that  he  who  was  but  little  in  the  new  order  was 
greater  than  John.  On  the  other  hand,  John 
could  find  no  terms  too  strong  in  which  to  de- 
clare his  sense  of  Christ's  superiority,  and  his 
joy  at  the  privilege  which  was  given  him  "to 
nominate  a  successor  who  was  far  greater  than 
himself."  "There  cometh  after  me,"  he  cried, 
"  He  that  is  mightier  than  I,  the  latchet  of  whose 
shoes  I  am  not  worthy  to  stoop  down  and  un- 
loose "  (Mark  i.  7,  8).  As  he  beheld  his  own 
followers  desert  him  to  join  Christ,  and  saw  the 
multitudes  flocking  to  Him,  he  rejoiced  that  his 
mission  was  accomphshcd.  The  solitary  one 
had  come :  let  Him  increase  (John  iii.  2;2-3o). 

3.  Jesus  was  sufficient  to  Himself.  Me  did 
not  need  the  support   of  the  multitude.      He 


S04  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

preferred  to  withdraw  and  be  alone,  save  as  He 
was  among  the  people  to  serve  them;  service 
over,  He  sought  soHtude.  It  was  not  the  self- 
sufficiency  of  carelessness  or  of  pride  or  of  sin  or 
of  personal  unsociability,  but  of  a  lofty  and  di- 
vine uniqueness  that  could  find  adequate  society 
only  in  the  silent  fellowship  of  God  (Mark  i.  35  ; 
Luke  vi.  12  ;  Mark  vi.  46,  47  ;  John  vi.  22).  He 
was  willing  ever  to  forego  the  desire  for  solitude 
that  He  might  be  of  use,  but  He  needed  nothing 
that  society  could  supply.  He  was  its  Lord; 
He  gave.  In  the  loneliness  of  His  unmatched 
spirit  He  needed  not  that  any  man  should  sup- 
port Him.  He  was  the  Son  of  man.  He  stood 
alone. 

4.  He  defined  His  work  in  terms  of  God's 
activity.  As  in  His  doctrine  He  declared  God 
was  speaking  (John  xiv.  10),  as  in  His  life  He 
declared  that  men  saw  God  (John  xiv.  9),  so  in 
His  working  He  declared  God  was  at  work  and 
responsible  for  all  (John  v.  19;  Luke  viii.  39). 
"  God  anointed  Him  with  power,"  Simon  Peter 
declared  to  Cornelius  (Acts  x.  38),  "and  He 
went  about  doing  good;  for  God  was  with 
Him." 

5.  He  made  the  most  astounding  assertions 
about  His  person  and  work.  He  met  a  criticism 
of  the  Pharisees  upon  His  disciples'  lax  obser- 
vance of  the  Sabbath  by  a  statement  which  cul 
minated  in  the  declaration,  "  I  say  unto  you,  that 
one  greater  than  the  Temple  is  here  "  (Matt.  xii. 
6).  In  pronouncing  a  condemnation  on  certain 
scribes  and  Pharisees  who  sought  a  sign,  He 
claimed  to  be  greater  than  Jonah  and  Solomon 
{Matt.  xii.  41,  42),  and  He  aroused  the  indig- 
nant fury  of  certain  Jews  in  Jerusalem  by  saying 
that  Abraham  had  rejoiced  to  see  His  day,  and 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         20$ 

adding,  "  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am "  (John 
viii.  56-59).  He  spoke  even  more  plainly  than 
this.  To  the  Pharisees  of  Jerusalem  He  said 
during  His  visit  to  Jerusalem  at  the  Feast  of 
Tabernacles,  "Our  lives  are  wholly  at  variance. 
Your  whole  being  in  its  true  principles  is  of  the 
lower,  the  sensual  life,  which  is  really  death ; 
flesh  of  flesh  are  you.  I  am  from  above ;  My  life, 
tastes,  judgments  are  from  heaven.  Ye  are  the 
children  of  the  visible,  the  unenduring  order  of 
the  world  which  passeth  away  with  its  lusts.  I 
am  the  Son  of  the  Eternal ;  I  bring  in  the  new 
order,  even  the  spiritual,  of  which  I  am  the 
door"  (John  viii.  21-23). 

His  words,  He  declared,  should  endure  forever 
(Mark  xiii.  31).  He  exhausts  metaphors  in  the 
assertion  of  His  unique  and  preeminent  relation 
to  life  and  those  who  would  have  life :  "  I  am 
the  door"  (John  x.  9);  "the  good  shepherd" 
(John  X.  1 1) ;  "  the  light  of  the  world  "  (John  viii. 
12);  "the  bread  of  life "  (John  vi.  35);  "the 
living  bread  which  came  down  out  of  heaven :  if 
any  man  eat  of  this  bread,  he  shall  live  forever : 
yea  and  the  bread  which  I  will  give  is  My  flesh, 
for  the  hfe  of  the  world"  (John  vi.  51); 
"the  way,  and  the  truth,  and  the  hfe"  (John 
xiv.  6) ;  "  the  true  vine ;  apart  from  Me  ye  are 
fruitless,  powerless  in  prayer,  powerless  utterly  " 
(John  XV.  4,  5,  6);  "the  resurrection,  and  the 
life :  he  that  believeth  on  Me,  though  he  die,  yet 
shall  he  live :  and  whosoever  liveth  and  believeth 
on  Me  shall  never  die"  (John  xi.  25,  26). 

There  are  no  bounds  to  His  assurances.  He 
will  wholly  satisfy  all  life  (John  iv.  i4;vii.  37, 
38),  vanquish  and  destroy  death  (John  ii.  19), 
draw  all  men  to  Himsjlf  (John  xii.  32),  rising 
triumphant  over  the  triumph  of  evil  in  His  death. 


2o6  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

Life  is  to  be  found  in  Him  alone  (John  xiv.  6). 
There  is  no  hfe  save  in  Him  (John  xv.  6).  He 
is  Himself  hfe— the  pure  hfe  for  the  hves  of  men 
(John  V.  26;  vi.  47).  No  one  can  control  His 
life  (John  x.  18);  He  sways  it  and  all  omnipo- 
tence (John  xiv.  14). 

Considering  these  claims  of  Christ's,  from 
which  there  can  be  no  escape  that  does  not  end 
in  humanity's  suicide,  Channing  seemed  to  rise 
to  the  full  Christian  faith :  "  I  confess  when  I 
can  escape  the  deadening  power  of  habit,  and 
can  receive  the  full  import  of  such  passages  as 
the  following :  '  Come  unto  Me,  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy-laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest'  (Matt.  xi.  28) ;  'The  Son  of  man  came  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost '  (Luke  xix. 
10) ;  'Everyone  therefore  who  shall  confess  Me 
before  men,  him  will  I  also  confess  before  My 
Father  in  heaven'  (Matt.  x.  32);  'Whosoever 
shall  be  ashamed  of  Me  and  of  My  words,  of 
him  shall  the  Son  of  man  be  ashamed,  when  He 
Cometh  in  the  glory  of  the  Father,  and  of  the 
holy  angels'  (Luke  ix.  26);  'In  My  Father's 
house  are  many  mansions.  I  go  to  prepare  a 
place  for  you'  (John  xiv.  2) — I  say,  when  I 
can  succeed  in  realizing  the  import  of  such  pas- 
sages, I  feel  myself  listening  to  a  Being  who 
never  before  and  never  since  spoke  in  human 
language.  I  am  awed  by  the  consciousness  of 
greatness  which  these  words  express,  and  when  I 
connect  this  greatness  with  the  proofs  of  Christ's 
miracles,  I  am  compelled  to  speak  with  the  cen- 
turion, '  Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God ' " 
(Channing's  sermon.  The  Character  of  Christ). 

6.  Jesus  claims  a  partnership  with  the  Father 
which  involves  His  deity.  From  the  Father  He 
declares  He  came  (John  viii.  42),  sent  by  Him, 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         207 

with  the  Father's  absohite  power  (John  viii.  29) ; 
the  Father  sustaining  such  relations  to  the  Son 
that  to  honor  the  Son  is  to  honor  the  Father 
(John  V.  23) ;  to  love  the  Son  is  to  love  the  Father, 
and  the  condition  of  the  Father's  love  and  in- 
dwelhng  (John  xiv.  23) ;  to  believe  on  the  Son  is 
the  doing  by  each  man  of  the  Father's  work  for 
him  and  the  fulfilment  of  His  life-purpose  for 
him  (John  vi.  29) ;  so  that  the  deeds  of  the  Son 
are  the  Father's  deeds  (John  viii.  28),  the  words 
of  the  Son  the  Father's  words  (John  viii.  28 ;  xii. 
49),  so  that  the  only  door  to  the  Father  is  through 
the  all-representing  Son  (Matt.  xi.  27),  that  those 
seeing  the  Son  have  seen  the  Father  (John  xiv. 
9),  and  that  knowing  the  Son  is  knowing  the 
Father  (John  xiv.  7).  Jesus  well-nigh  exhausts 
the  possibilities  of  language  in  asserting  and  de- 
scribing His  mission  from  the  Father  (John  iii. 
17,  34 ;  iv.  34 ;  V.  24,  30,  36,  37,  38 ;  vi.  29,  38, 
39,  44,  57;  vii.  16,  18,  28-30,  sS'y  viii.  16,  18, 
26,  29,  42  ;  ix.  4  ;  X.  36  ;  xi.  42  ;  xii.  44,  45,  49  ; 
xiii.  20;  xiv.  24;  XV.  21  ;  xvi.  5;  xvii.  3,  8,  18, 
21,  23). 

Father  and  Son,  the  eternal  God  and  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  "  the  man  Christ  Jesus,"  were  thus 
repeatedly  and  explicitly  asserted  by  Jesus  to  be 
allied  in  the  bonds  of  a  divine  unity :  "  I  and 
the  Father"  (John  viii.  16);  "I  and  the  Father 
are  one  "  (John  x.  30).  The  Jews  of  His  day 
did  not  misunderstand  Him.  They  construed 
correctly  the  clear  words  in  which  He  phrased 
the  great  truth,  and  they  sought  to  kill  Him  be- 
cause He  "called  God  His  own  Father,  making 
Himself  equal  with  God  "  (John  v.  1 7,  18).  "  We 
have  a  law,"  they  told  Pilate,  "  and  by  that  law 
He  ought  to  die,  because  He  made  Himself  the 
Son  of  God"  (John  xix.  7).     *'Thou,  being  a 


208  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

man,"  they  said  to  Jesus,  "  makest  Thyself  God  " 
(John  X.  33). 

This  was  precisely  v/hat  Jesus  did ;  He  made 
Himself  God.  He  assumed  that  a  belief  in  Him 
flowed  naturally  from  a  belief  in  God,  that  Chris- 
tianity  was  the  logical  result  of  a  consistent  the- 
ism (John  xiv.  i),  and  to  His  judgment  He 
would  admit  no  qualification  or  waiver  (John 
viii.  1 6). 

Men  should  not  juggle  with  these  words  of 
Christ's ;  they  should  deal  squarely  with  them, 
not  paring  all  the  plain  meaning  away.  Their 
necessary  consequence  is  unmistakable.  Given 
the  sanity  and  the  goodness  of  Jesus,  and  it 
must  follow  that  in  some  honest  sense  He  was 
the  Son  of  God. 

7.  His  unique  lordliness  was  displayed  in  His 
calm,  masterful  words  in  the  "upper  room"  and 
on  the  way  to  Gethsemane.  Philo  writes,  in  ref- 
erence to  Numbers  xxv.  12,  "  God  gave  to  Phin- 
ehas  the  greatest  blessing,  even  peace,  a  blessing 
which  no  man  is  able  to  afford."  Jesus  gave 
peace,  and  such  peace  as  the  world  could  not  give : 
"  My  peace,  the  peace  of  which  I  am  Lord  and 
source,  a  peace  not  fading  like  the  world's  gifts, 
but  deepening  and  swelling  evermore."  What 
He  had  said  to  them  that  memorable  evening 
was  spoken  that  they  might  have  peace.  "Let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  feai  - 
ful.  In  the  world  ye  have  tribulation :  but  be  of 
good  cheer ;  I  have  overcome  the  world  "  (John 
xiv.  27  ;  xvi.  33). 

8.  The  agony  and  pain  of  death  did  not  de- 
stroy this  sense  of  lonely  superiority.  It  was  no 
feigned  thing.  He  was  superior  to  all  and  alone. 
As  He  hung  upon  the  cross  God  was  nearer  to 
Him  than  were  the  multitudes  who  stood  about. 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         209 

and  He  spoke  to  Him  as  face  to  face,  and  even 
in  the  hour  of  death  opened  the  doors  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  to  a  penitent  thief,  while  He 
prayed  pityingly  that  God  would  forgive  those 
who,  with  no  knowledge  of  their  awful  crime, 
were  putting  Him  to  death  (Matt,  xxvii.  46 ; 
Lukexxiii.34,43,46).  The  other  words  from  the 
cross  reveal  the  same  distinct  uniqueness  (John 
xix.  26,  27,  28,  30). 

9.  And  all  this  was  as  natural  to  Him  as  child- 
likeness  is  to  a  child.  We  should  be  surprised  at 
His  assumption  of  any  other  tone.  The  Lord 
spoke  with  a  lordly  voice.  In  hearing  Him,  as 
Channing  says,  "  we  feel  that  a  new  being  of  a 
new  order  of  mind  is  taking  part  in  human  affairs. 
There  is  a  native  tone  of  grandeur  and  authority 
in  His  teaching.  He  speaks  as  a  being  related 
to  the  whole  human  race.  A  narrower  sphere 
than  the  world  never  enters  His  thoughts.  He 
speaks  in  a  naturally  spontaneous  style  of  accom- 
plishing the  most  arduous  and  important  changes 
in  human  affairs.  This  unlabored  manner  of 
expressing  great  thoughts  is  particularly  worthy 
of  attention.  You  never  hear  from  Jesus  that 
pompous,  swelHng,  ostentatious  language  which 
almost  necessarily  springs  from  an  attempt  to 
sustain  a  character  above  our  powers.  He  talks 
of  His  glories  as  one  to  whom  they  are  familiar. 
.  .  .  He  speaks  of  saving  and  judging  the  world, 
of  drawing  all  men  to  Himself,  and  of  giving 
everlasting  hfe  as  we  speak  of  the  ordinary  pow- 
ers which  we  exert." 

His  uniqueness  did  not  suddenly  dawn  upon 
Him.  He  did  not  forget  ever  the  character  He 
had  assumed,  and  now  and  then  fail  in  His  main- 
tenance of  it.  It  was  not  a  uniqueness  attained, 
and  therefore  it  could  never  be  a  uniqueness  lost 


3IO  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

or  marred.  It  was  natural  in  Jesus  just  as  it 
would  be  unnatural  and  impossible  in  any  one 
else.  Our  separation  from  that  which  is  low  is 
a  matter  of  struggle  issuing  in  victory  only  after 
many  and  painful  defeats,  in  which  we  fall  back 
and  must  begin  again.  The  common  experience 
— is  it,  after  all,  the  necessary  one  ? — is  this : 

*'  I  count  this  thing  to  be  grandly  true : 

That  a  noble  deed  is  a  step  toward  God, 
Lifting  the  soul  from  the  common  sod 
To  a  purer  air  and  a  broader  view. 

*'  We  hope,  we  aspire,  we  resolve,  we  trust. 

When  the  morning  calls  us  to  life  and  light ; 
But  our  hearts  grow  weary,  and  ere  the  night 
Our  lives  are  trailing  the  sordid  dust." 

lo.  Jesus'  Strong  consciousness  of  God,  which 
was  characteristic  of  Him  and  shows  the  emo- 
tional depths  of  His  hfe,  testifies  also  to  the 
truthfulness  of  the  claims  put  forth  to  an  unpre- 
cedented relationship  to  God.  A  deep  know- 
ledge of  God  was  part  of  His  claims :  "  I  know 
Him;  because  I  am  from  Him,  and  He  sent 
Me  "  (John  vii.  29).  The  Son  was  ever  able  to 
turn  to  the  Father,  regardless  of  surrounding 
throngs  (Matt.  xi.  25,  26),  and  such  passages  as 
fill  the  high-priestly  prayer  show  how  deep  was 
His  sense  of  the  Father's  nearness :  ''  Lifting 
up  His  eyes  to  heaven,  He  said.  Father ;  "  "  All 
things  that  are  Mine  are  Thine,  and  Thine  are 
Mine ;  "  "  Now  come  I  to  Thee ;  "  "  Even  as 
Thou,  Father,  art  in  Me,  and  I  in  Thee,  that 
they  also  may  be  in  us  "  (John  xvii.  i,  5,  10,  13, 
21,  23,  26). 

And  this  was  no  illusion  or  self-deception  of 
an  enthusiast  who  was  filled  with  the  elation  of 
a  theosophical  dream.    As  Channing  says,  "  The 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         211 

charge  of  an  extravagant,  self-deluding  enthusi 
asm  is  the  last  to  be  fastened  on  Jesus.  Where 
can  we  find  traces  of  it  in  His  history?  Do  we 
detect  them  in  the  calm  authority  of  His  pre- 
cepts, in  the  mild,  practical,  beneficent  spirit  of 
His  religion,  in  the  unlabored  simphcity  of  the 
language  in  which  He  unfolds  His  high  powers 
and  the  sublime  truths  of  religion,  or  in  the  good 
sense,  the  knowledge  of  human  nature  which  He 
always  discloses  in  His  estimate  and  treatment 
of  the  different  classes  of  men  with  whom  He 
acted?  The  truth  is  that, remarkable  as  was  the 
character  of  Jesus,  it  was  distinguished  by  noth- 
ing more  than  by  calmness  and  self-possession." 
In  the  midst  of  distractions,  the  dullness  of  His 
disciples,  the  hostihty  of  "  His  own,"  the  appa- 
rent failure  of  His  mission,  He  preserved  unbro- 
ken composure,  lived  in  the  divine  fellowship,  and 
left  the  benediction  of  its  peace  to  His  followers. 
Nothing  interrupted  His  perfect  self-satisfaction, 
His  perfect  vision  of  God,  His  quiet,  unirritated 
confidence.  How  widely  different  is  all  this  from 
our  experience  of  irregularity,  of  alternate  vision 
and  disappointment!  Men  must  say,  as  Brown- 
ing says  in  "  Cristina  "  : 

"  Oh,  we're  sunk  enough  here,  God  knows! 

But  not  quite  so  sunk  that  moments, 
Sure  tho'  seldom,  are  denied  us, 

When  the  spirit's  true  endowments 
Stand  out  plainly  from  its  false  ones, 

And  apprise  it  if  pursuing 
Or  the  right  way  or  the  wrong  way, 

To  its  triumph  or  undoing. 

"  There  are  flashes  struck  from  midnights, 
There  are  fire-flames  noondays  kindle, 
Whereby  piled-up  iionors  perish, 

Whereby  swollen  ambitions  dwindle, 


212  THE    MAN    CHRIST    JESUS 

While  just  this  or  that  poor  impulse. 
Which  for  once  had  play  unstifled, 

Seems  the  sole  work  of  a  lifetime 
That  away  the  rest  have  trifled." 


How  utterly  foreign  this  is  to  the  atmosphere 
and  spirit  of  Jesus!  Mrs.  Browning's  sonnet, 
'*  Work  and  Contemplation,"  represents  His 
spirit : 

"  The  woman  singeth  at  her  spinning-wheel 
A  pleasant  chant,  ballad,  or  barcarole. 
She  thinketh  of  her  song,  upon  the  wholq 

Far  more  than  of  her  flax ;  and  yet  the  reel 

Is  full,  and  artfully  her  fingers  feel 

With  quick  adjustment,  provident  control, 
The  lines,  too  subtly  twisted  to  unroll 

Out  to  a  perfect  thread.     I  hence  appeal 

To  the  dear  Christian  church,  that  we  may  do 

Our  Father's  business  in  these  temples  merk 

Thus  swift  and  steadfast,  thus  intent  and  strong; 
While  thus,  apart  from  toil,  our  souls  pursue 

Some  high,  calm,  spheric  tune,  and  prove  our  work 

The  better  for  the  sweetness  of  our  song." 


It  was  thus  the  Son  did  the  Father's  business. 
No  man  ever  did  it  as  it  was  done  by  Him,  the 
only  Son  of  God,  the  only  Son  of  man. 

"  If  I  were  already  convinced,"  wrote  Mr. 
F.  W.  Newman,  "that  this  Person  was  a  great 
unique,  separated  from  all  other  men  by  an  im- 
passable chasm  in  regard  to  His  physical  origin, 
I  (for  one)  should  be  much  readier  to  believe 
that  He  was  unique  and  unapproachable  in  other 
respects ;  for  all  God's  works  have  an  internal 
harmony."  But  surely  the  argument  is  more 
powerful  if  turned  about.  If  in  all  respects  of 
His  life  and  character  Jesus  was  unique  and  un- 
approachable, it  is  less  difficult  to  conceive  that 
He  must  have  had  unique  origin  and  stand  in 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         213 

inner  relation,  not  less  than  in  outward  manifes- 
tation, removed  from  men. 

Is  it  not  significant  of  the  world's  unconscious 
sense  of  the  validity  of  these  claims  that  Jesus 
has  yet  ever  been  regarded  as  the  ideal  of  humil- 
ity? Could  a  man  who  called  himself  God  be 
deemed  humble?  Yet  Jesus  has  always  been  to 
all  the  embodiment  of  lowliness,  the  quiet  man, 
and  meek.  The  heart  of  man  instinctively  recog- 
nized in  Him  the  humiHty  of  the  incarnate  God. 

VI.  His  pray  erf ulness, 

Jesus'  consciousness  of  God  is  in  nothing 
more  fully  expressed  than  in  His  prayerfulness. 
Prayer  was  the  natural  atmosphere  of  His  hfe. 
Even  in  the  midst  of  a  throng  He  would  at  once 
express  an  inward  satisfaction  in  an  outward 
thanksgiving  (Matt.  xi.  25,  26).  The  Father 
seemed  ever  to  be  near,  and  Jesus  was  accus- 
tomed to  speak  to  Him  as  He  would  speak  to 
one  of  His  own  disciples  (John  xii.  27  ;  Luke 
xxiii.  46).  His  disciples  seem  to  have  been  im- 
pressed with  this  recognition  of  the  nearness  and 
!ove  of  God.  They  knew  the  spot  where  the  five 
thousand  were  fed  as  "  the  place  where  they  ate 
the  bread  after  the  Lord  had  given  thanks" 
(John  vi.  23),  and  they  remarked  upon  His  habit 
of  thanksgiving,  of  "  blessing  "  in  prayer  (Matt 
XV.  36;  Mark  viii.  6;  Luke  ix.  16;  Matt.  xxvi. 
26,  27;  Luke  T^Y\\.  17-19;  xxiv.  30). 

The  first  impressive  feature  of  His  prayerful- 
ness  is  its  love  of  solitude.  There  are  three  kinds 
of  solitude — the  sohtude  of  time,  the  sohtude  of 
place,  and  the  solitude  of  spirit.  Jesus  knew  all 
of  these.  He  was  accustomed  to  spend  the  night 
in  prayer  CLuke  vi.   12).     He  would  rise  long 


214  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

before  day  and  pray  in  the  faint  morning  light 
(Mark  i.  35) ;  and  at  the  sunset  hour, 

"  When  evening  shuts," 

and  the  world  by  its  gathering  darkness  testifies 
to  the  solitariness  of  the  living  spirit,  He  loved 
to  pray  (Mark  vi.  46,  47  ;  Matt.  xiv.  23).  His 
two  prayers  of  deepest  power  were  uttered  the 
one  before  midnight  at  the  Temple  gates  (John 
xvii.),  and  the  other  just  after  midnight  in  Geth- 
semane  (John  xviii.  2).  Jesus  availed  Himself 
not  less  of  the  solitude  of  place  for  His  prayers : 
mountain  (Luke  vi.  12  ;  Mark  vi.  46;  Matt.  xiv. 
23),  deserts  (Luke  v.  16 ;  Matt.  xiv.  13),  and  the 
gloom  of  gardens  (John  xviii.  2).  But  the  soli- 
tude of  spirit  is  greater  desolation  than  sohtude 
of  time  or  place.  What  human  spirit  has  not 
tasted  its  most  sweet  and  bitter  loneliness  in  the 
midst  of  unknown  multitudes?  Jesus,  too,  was 
never  more  alone  than  when  crowds  surrounded 
Him  (Matt.  xi.  25  ;  John  xi.  42  ;  Matt,  xxvii.  46  ; 
Luke  xxiii.  46).  The  disciples  noticed  this  power 
of  abstraction,  and  the  far-away,  lonesome  look 
that  came  upon  His  face.  "  It  came  to  pass," 
we  read  in  their  story  of  Him,  "  as  He  was  pray- 
ing alone,  the  disciples  were  with  Him  "  (Luke 
ix.  18).  Their  presence  did  not  disturb  His  sol- 
itude. 

The  intimacy  of  the  relation  which  He  claimed 
to  sustain  to  God  was  in  keeping  with  the  con- 
stancy of  His  prayerfulness.  In  all  the  exigencies 
of  His  life  He  turned  to  the  strength  of  prayer's 
fellowship  instinctively.  The  great  events  of  His 
life  were  preceded  by  prayer:  such  miracles  as 
His  walking  on  the  sea  and  stiUing  the  tempest 
(Matt.  xiv.   23-35),  feeding  the  four  thousand 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         21$ 

(Matt.  XV.  36),  healing  the  lunatic  boy  (Mark  ix. 
14-29),  raising  Lazarus  (John  xi.  41,  42),  feed- 
ing the  five  thousand  (John  vi.  11  ff.) ;  such  out- 
goings of  power  as  His  upholding  of  Peter  upon 
the  sea,  and  the  healing  of  multitudes  at  Gennes- 
aret  (Matt.  xiv.  23,  31-36).  The  people  con- 
nected His  prayers  with  helpful  influences,  and 
brought  little  children  to  Him  "  that  He  should 
lay  His  hands  on  them,  and  pray  "  (Matt.  xix.  13). 
The  choice  of  the  Twelve  and  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount  were  preceded  by  a  night  of  prayer  (Luke 
vi.  12,  13),  and  Peter's  great  confession  was  made 
after  the  disciples  had  seen  Him  engaged  in  prayer 
alone  (Luke  ix.  18,  20).  The  transfiguration  was 
a  phenomenon  of  prayer  (Luke  ix.  28-36). 

Such  prayers  of  anticipation  are  common. 
Facing  a  great  crisis,  men  turn  instinctively  to  a 
power  without  themselves,  desiring  help  against 
the  hour  of  need.  When  the  crisis  is  past,  they 
lean  once  more  contentedly  upon  their  own 
strength  and  discernment.  Jesus,  however,  fol- 
lowed the  great  events  of  His  life  by  prayer :  the 
feeding  of  the  five  thousand  (Matt.  xiv.  23),  the 
remarkable  Sabbath  spent  in  Capernaum,  with  its 
miracles  and  deep  impressions  (Mark  i.  32,  35), 
the  heahng  of  a  leper,  the  symbol  of  impurity,  in 
a,  Galilean  town  (Luke  v.  16),  His  baptism  (Luke 
iii.  21,  22). 

The  soiTows  of  His  life  were  met  in  prayer: 
the  misunderstanding  and  materialism  of  the 
people  (John  vi.  15),  die  awful  prospect  of  the 
murder  of  God's  Son  by  the  nation  which  God 
had  trained  to  be  the  first  to  recognize  and  obey 
His  Son,  His  own  physical  weakness  and  moral 
strain  (Matt.  xxvi.  36-46),  the  prospect  of  self-sac- 
rifice and  the  bitter-sweet  conditions  of  His  com- 
ing dominion  (John  xii.  28),  the  triumph  of  death 


ai6  THE    MAN    CHRIST  JESUS 

over  those  He  loved,  and  the  failure  of  His  friends 
to  understand  His  triumph  over  death  (John  xi. 
41,  42),  His  agonizing  end  (Luke  xxiii.  46). 

Much  of  His  prayer  was  for  others  than  Him- 
self. Simon  Peter,  whose  needs  He  well  knew, 
was  a  constant  object  of  His  prayer  (Luke  xxii. 
32) ;  and  on  His  cross  He  prayed  for  His  mur- 
derers (Luke  xxiii.  34),  in  true  commentary  on 
Luke  vi.  27,  28.  Such  was  His  confidence  in 
His  prayers  that  He  even  gave  thanks  publicly 
for  God's  goodness  in  hearing  Him  before  any 
answer  had  come  (John  xi.  41,  42).  In  some 
strange  way  His  soul  was  stirred  in  prayer.  When 
He  prayed  "yet  more  strainingly  "  the  blood-drops 
stood  out  in  sweat  upon  His  brow  (Luke  xxii. 
44),  and  it  was  "  as  He  was  praying  "  that  "  the 
fashion  of  His  countenance  was  altered  "  (Luke 
ix.  29).  His  prayers  were  as  simple,  too,  as  those 
of  a  little  child  (Matt.  xi.  25-27  ;  John  xi.  41,  42  ; 
Luke  xxiii.  34,  46),  and  as  submissive,  wholly  free 
from  all  self-will  and  pride  (Matt.  xi.  26 ;  xxvi. 
39,  42,  44). 

The  busier  He  was  the  more  earnestly  He  seems 
to  have  given  Himself  to  prayer  (Mark  i.  35  ; 
Luke  iv.  42  ;  John  vi.  15) ;  but  He  was  ready  at 
any  time  to  forego  for  the  sake  of  service  the 
privilege  of  silence  and  communion  which  He 
so  greatly  valued  (Matt.  xiv.  14). 

His  disciples  were  greatly  impressed  by  His 
habit  of  prayer,  and  they  requested  Him  to  give 
them  instruction  that  they  might  be  able  to  pray 
(Luke  xi.  i).  There  is  no  record  of  any  request 
of  theirs  to  be  taught  how  to  work  miracles  or 
cures,  or  how  to  preach  and  teach ;  but  they 
coveted  His  prayerfulness,  and  desired  from  Him 
such  lessons  as  the  disciples  of  John  the  Baptist 
had  received  from  their  faithful  master. 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS        217 


VII.  His  venturesome  prophecies. 

He  foretold  with  much  explicitness  and  detail 
the  fall  of  the  Holy  City.  To  deny  this  is  to  dis- 
credit all  that  is  told  us  regarding  Him  (Matt. 
xxiv.  3-28  ;  Luke  xxi.  20-28).  Of  the  destruction 
of  the  Temple  He  spoke  with  special  clearness 
(Luke  xxi.  5,  6 ;  Mark  xiii.  2),  knowing  that  it 
would  be  the  death-blow  to  more  than  a  national 
and  provincial  worship.  He  foresaw  and  foretold 
the  horrors  of  His  own  death,  from  which  human 
history  was  to  start  anew,  and  which  was  to  pour 
into  the  veins  of  the  race  the  Hfe-blood  of  His 
own  humanity  (Luke  xxii.  36,  37  ;  ix.  22-27,  S^j 
43-45  ;  xviii.  31-34).  He  foresaw  and  foretold 
also  the  sweep  of  the  influence  he  was  setting  in 
motion,  never  to  be  checked  or  impeded  until  it 
merges  at  last  in  the  full  glory  of  His  personal 
triumph  (John  xii.  32).  Despised  and  rejected 
of  men,  He  was  yet,  He  declared,  the  eternal 
center  of  humanity.  It  would  gather  at  last  about 
Him.  He  was  the  divine  dreamer,  the  visionary  of 
the  ages.  A  poor,  hunted  Galilean  peasant  come 
from  a  carpenter's  humble  home,  followed  about, 
not  by  the  rich  and  great,  but  by  a  diminishing 
crowd  of  artisans,  who  sluggishly  struggled  to 
apprehend  the  first  principles  of  His  teaching, 
He  yet  declared  that  the  story  of  a  woman's  love 
in  breaking  an  alabaster  cruse  and  pouring  its 
ointment  over  His  head  would  be  told  through- 
out the  world  (Mark  xiv.  3-9).  He  even  asserted 
that  the  consummation  of  God's  plans  for  this 
world  waited  upon  the  world-wide  proclamation  of 
His  gospel  (Matt.  xxiv.  14),  and  the  discipling 
of  the  nations  who  were  to  be  baptized  into  the 
name  which  He,  Jesus  the  Nazarene,  and  God 


2l8  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

and  the  Spirit  of  God  had  in  common  (Matt, 
xxviii.  19,  20).  And  when  at  His  trial  the  high 
priest  said  to  Him,  "  I  adjure  The*  by  the  Hving 
God,  that  Thou  tell  us  whether  Thou  be  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,"  He  replied,  "  Thou  hast  said : 
nevertheless  I  say  unto  you.  Henceforth  ye  shall 
see  the  Son  of  man  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of 
power,  and  coming  on  the  clouds  of  heaven" 
(Matt.  xxvi.  63,  64).  Like  imagery  He  used  to 
His  disciples  when  He  drew  for  them  the  vivid 
picture  of  the  judgment,  when  He,  the  Son  of 
man,  should  come  in  His  glory,  and  all  the  angels 
with  Him,  and  should  sit  on  the  throne  of  His 
glory,  and  before  Him  should  be  gathered  all 
nations  to  be  judged  by  Him,  their  King  (Matt. 
XXV.  31-46).    Did  ever  man  dare  to  speak  thus? 

But  not  only  was  Jesus  the  master  Prophet; 
He  was  Himself  the  great  prophecy,  the  state- 
ment of  God  in  terms  of  space  and  time,  the 
promised  one,  the  promise  of  what  man  may  be 
and  in  the  vast  grace  of  God  is  to  become. 
Simeon's  heart  beat  hard  within  him  as  the  old 
man  received  the  child  into  his  arms,  and  behold- 
ing  the  unveihng  of  God,  the  revelation  of  God's 
infinite  purpose  for  man,  he  cried  aloud  (Luke 
ii.  29-32): 

"  Now  lettest  Thou  Thy  servant  depart,  O  Lord, 
According  to  Thy  word,  in  peace; 
For  mine  eyes  have  seen  Thy  salvation, 
Which  Thou  hast  prepared  before  the  face  of  all  peoples ; 
A  light  for  revelation  to  the  Gentiles, 
And  the  glory  of  Thy  people  Israel." 

And  as  he  handed  the  child  back  to  His  mother, 
he  called  Him  "  a  sign,"  the  hint,  the  prophecy 
of  God,  God's  salvation  for  man,  His  gift  of 
Himself. 


EXTRAORDINARY    CHARACTERISTICS         219 

Slowly  this  great  prophecy  is  realizing  itself. 
Through  storm  and  stress  men  are  coming  to  the 
sense  and  the  love  of  it,  and  see  in  its  far-off  glory 
their  hope  and  goal.  Every  development  of 
juster  ideas,  all  increasing  love  for  the  things  that 
are  lovely  and  true  and  pure  and  honorable  and 
of  good  report,  even  the  wrath  of  evil  and  wrong, 
the  swelling  tide  of  good,  and  the  deepening  wick- 
edness of  sin,  are  but  the  signs  of  His  coming. 
He  rules  His  world  still.  In  a  sense  other  than 
Lowell  meant  his  words  are  true ; 


Slowly  the  Bible  of  the  race  is  writ, 

And  not  on  paper  leaves  or  leaves  of  stone ; 

Each  age,  each  kindred,  adds  a  page  to  it — 
Texts  of  despair  or  hope,  of  joy  or  moan. 

While  swings  the  sea,  while  mists  the  mountains  shroud, 

While  thunder's  surges  burst  on  cliffs  of  cloud, 
Still  at  the  prophet's  feet  the  nations  sit." 


Yes,  at  the  Prophefs  feet! 


HIS  BEARING  AT  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH 


221 


VI 

HIS    BEARING    AT    HIS    TRIAL   AND    DEATH 

Our  Lord's  trial  and  condemnation  were  wholly 
irregular  and  unjust.  Immediately  after  His  ar- 
rest He  was  taken  to  a  midnight  meeting  of  the 
faction  most  bent  upon  His  death,  at  "  the  booths 
of  the  sons  of  Hanan,"  the  rendezvous  of  the  party 
of  Annas  (John  xviii.  12-24).  Here  Jesus  was 
alone,  surrounded  by  deadly  enemies,  at  the  dead 
of  night,  in  the  quarters  of  His  captors.  Instead 
of  a  just  trial  to  which  He  was  entitled.  He  was 
subjected  to  an  irregular  examination  designed  to 
extort  evidence  which  could  be  used  against  Him 
in  the  subsequent  arraignment  before  the  Sanhe- 
drin.  In  the  midst  of  these  circumstances,  ar- 
ranged doubtless  to  intimidate  Jesus,  the  high 
priest,  who  was  not  above  taking  part  in  these 
illegal  proceedings,  asked  Jesus  of  His  disciples 
and  His  doctrine.  Jesus  ignored  the  question 
about  His  disciples,  and  answered  him,  "  I  have 
spoken  openly  to  the  world;  I  ever  taught  in 
synagogues,  and  in  the  Temple,  where  all  the 
Jews  come  together ;  and  in  secret  spake  I  nothing. 
Why  askest  thou  Me?  ask  them  that  have  heard 
Me,  what  I  spake  unto  them :  behold,  these 
[standing  here]  know  the  things  which  I  said." 
Their  answer  was  a  blow  in  the  face.  Jesus  at 
once  challenged  the  smiter  to  testify ;  He  recog- 
223 


224  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

nized  in  him  a  hearer.  Evidence,  not  violence, 
was  wanted.  His  examination  did  not  yield  His 
examiners  the  results  desired,  so  it  was  brought 
to  a  conclusion,  and  Jesus  was  sent  to  Caiaphas 
for  the  regular  examination  before  the  Sanhedrin. 
The  course  of  Jesus'  trial  had  been  thus  far  in 
violation  of  the  recognized  Jewish  tradition  for 
the  trial  of  cases.  A  false  prophet  could  be  tried 
only  by  the  Great  Sanhedrin.  It  was  scarcely 
more  lawful  when  He  was  arraigned  in  the  very 
early  morning,  doubtless  before  it  was  light,  in 
the  house  of  Caiaphas.  Jewish  procedure  in  such 
cases  required  that  the  witnesses  should  be  ex- 
amined separately  and  strictly,  and  conviction 
could  be  reached  only  on  the  agreement  of  two 
witnesses,  who,  in  cases  of  blasphemy,  were  to  be 
rigorously  examined  as  to  the  exact  language  used 
by  the  accused.  No  such  agreement  was  reached 
in  the  case  of  Hierarchy  v.  Jesus  (Mark  xiv. 
56-59),  even  though  His  prosecutors,  who  were 
also  the  court  of  judgment,  sought  witness  against 
Hi?n  to  put  Him  to  death  (Mark  xiv.  55).  We  are 
not  accustomed  to  regard  this  search  as  one  of 
the  functions  of  a  judge  and  jury  nowadays  set 
for  the  fair  trial  of  an  accused  man.  In  capital 
cases  the  Jewish  traditional  code  required  wit- 
nesses to  be  especially  charged  as  to  the  possible 
consequences  of  their  testimony,  and  cautioned 
as  to  the  solemn  responsibility  of  bearing  witness 
against  a  life.  There  was  no  such  calm  and  just 
procedure  in  this  case.  In  capital  cases  all  was 
arranged  to  give  the  accused  the  benefit  of  any 
doubt,  and  so  the  votes  for  acquittal  were  called 
for  first.  In  this  case,  all  evidence  faUing  to 
pieces,  the  high  priest  rose  dramatically  and  ad- 
dressed Jesus,  and  upon  His  reply,  bent  relent- 
lessly, not  upon  a  fair  trial,  but  upon  the  destruc- 


HIS   BEARING  AT   HIS  TRIAL  AND   DEATH       22^ 

tion  of  the  accused,  he  rent  his  clothes  and  said, 
"  What  further  need  have  we  of  witnesses  ?  What 
think  ye?  "  And  they  all  voted  for  death  (Mark 
xiv.  61-64).  Did  any  member  of  the  Sanhedrin 
think  this  was  a  fair  trial?  In  capital  cases, 
further,  the  trial  could  take  place  only  by  day. 
If  a  judgment  of  acquittal  was  reached  it  could 
be  announced  on  the  day  of  trial.  A  sentence 
of  condemnation,  however,  could  not  be  given 
till  the  next  day.  There  should  be  no  unseemly 
haste.  Hence  cases  of  this  character  could  not 
be  tried  on  the  eve  of  a  feast  or  a  Sabbath.  In 
all  these  particulars  the  trial  of  Jesus  was  in  vio- 
lation of  the  established  Jewish  practice.  Even 
on  the  way  to  execution  it  was  specified  that  op- 
portunity should  be  given  the  accused,  as  many 
as  five  times,  to  bring  forward  fresh  pleas  or  proof 
of  his  innocence.  But  no  such  consideration 
was  shown  to  Jesus.  Vengeance,  not  justice, 
dictated  the  course  of  His  prosecutors. 

The  civil  trial  was  scarcely  more  regular.  Pi- 
late was  apparently  expecting  the  coming  of  the 
chief  priests  and  their  prisoner ;  for,  though  it  was 
early.  Hot  much  later  than  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  when  they  came  to  the  Praetorium,  he 
came  out  at  once  and  asked  for  the  specific  charge 
which  was  made  against  Jesus.  The  Jews  were 
not  a  little  discomfited  by  this  demand.  They 
had  counted  upon  ready  compliance  with  their 
desires.  "  If  this  man  were  not  an  evil-doer,"  they 
said,  "  we  should  not  have  delivered  Him  up  unto 
thee  "  (John  xviii.  30).  When  Pilate,  who  was 
not  in  a  concihatory  mood,  pressed  his  demand 
for  formal  accusation,  three  charges  emerged  from 
the  general  clamor  that  arose :  that  Jesus  had 
forbidden  the  payment  of  the  Roman  tribute,  that 
He  set  Himself  up  for  a  king,  and  that  He  per- 


2  26  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

verted  the  nation  (Luke  xxiii.  2).  The  first  of 
these  was  a  deliberate  falsehood,  as  they  well 
knew,  Jesus  having  expressly  approved  the 
Roman  tribute  (Mark  xii.  17),  in  answer  to  a 
public  question.  The  last  was  true  in 'a  sense. 
Jesus  did  pervert  the  nation  from  the  evil  ways 
of  the  chief  priests  and  Pharisees.  But  these 
charges  Pilate  passed  by,  and  decided  to  examine 
Jesus  on  the  other,  which  was  not,  as  the  others 
were  not,  the  charge  upon  which  Jesus  had  been 
tried  by  the  Sanhedrin. 

Of  course  Pilate  found  Jesus  innocent,  and 
acquitted  Him  ;  but  he  was  a  coward,  and  he  had 
a  bad  record,  and  the  foes  of  Christ  were  impla- 
cable. As  each  charge  broke  down  they  invented 
a  new  one.  Pilate  sneered  at  the  charge  of  evil- 
doing  (John  xviii.  30),  and  they  accused  Jesus  of 
sedition.  This  charge  Pilate  pronounced  ground- 
less (John  xviii.  ^;^,  39).  Then  they  alleged  a 
religious  and  capital  offense  against  their  own  law. 
After  Pilate  had  convinced  himself  of  Christ's 
perfect  innocence  of  all  crime  in  the  interview 
which  followed  this  charge,  he  openly  sought  to 
release  Him  (John  xix.  7-12) ;  and  then  the  Jews 
played  their  last  card  and  threatened  to  lodge 
information  against  Pilate  at  Rome  (John  xix. 
12).  This  brought  the  end.  No  crime  of  any 
sort  was  proved  against  Christ,  and  He  was  not 
condemned  for  any.  His  judge,  in  dehvering 
Him  to  death,  pronounced  Him  innocent  (Matt, 
xxvii.  24).  What  a  travesty  of  justice  was 
this! 

To  make  the  mockery  worse,  before  He  had 
been  groundlessly  condemned  He  was  treated  as 
it  was  lawful  to  treat  only  condemned  men.  "  I 
have  found  no  cause  of  death  in  Him,"  said  Pi- 
late :  "  I  will  therefore  chastise  Him  and  release 


HIS   BEARING  AT  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH      227 

Him"  (Luke  xxiii.  22).  So  Pilate  scourged  Him 
and  brought  Him  out  bloody  and  exhausted,  with 
the  words,  "  Behold,  I  bring  Him  out  to  you,  that 
ye  may  know  that  I  find  no  crime  in  Him  "  (John 
xix.  I,  4).  Did  a  judge  ever  choose  a  more  novel 
way  to  show  his  belief  in  the  innocence  of  a 
prisoner?  Scourging  was  a  part  of  the  sentence 
of  crucifixion.  Its  infliction  now  was  brutal,  un- 
just, and  arbitrary. 

How  did  Jesus  bear  Himself  during  these  try- 
ing experiences?  Could  forbearance  and  love, 
any  character  human  or  divine,  stand  such  a  test 
as  this?  This  was  the  humanity  Jesus  came  to 
save.  Was  it  not  showing  that  it  was  not  worth 
saving — was,  indeed,  fit  only  for  the  fellowship 
forever  of  that  evil,  unrighteousness,  and  sin 
which  it  was  so  openly  expressing,  and  which 
Jesus  came  to  slay?  He  came  to  reveal  the 
Father  in  the  heart  of  man.  Was  that  a  fit  place 
for  the  Father?  Would  not  Jesus  have  been 
justified  in  pouring  out  the  vials  of  the  wrath  of 
God  upon  this  impious  alliance  of  Gentile  and 
Jew  to  murder  the  Holy  One  of  God,  humanity's 
Son  and  Hfe?     How  did  He  conduct  Himself? 

I.  First  of  all.  He  was  very  quiet,  speaking 
almost  not  at  all.  Before  the  Sanhedrin  He  de- 
clined to  say  a  word  in  reply  to  the  perjured 
witnesses  (Matt.  xxvi.  62,  63).  When  before  Pi- 
late the  chief  priests  accused  Him  of  many  things, 
and  Pilate  asked  Him,  "  Answerest  Thou  noth. 
ing?  "  He  no  more  answered  anything  (Mark  xv. 
3-5)-  When  He  was  taken  before  Herod,  whom 
He  despised,  whom  He  had  called  "that  fox" 
(Luke  xiii.  32),  and  the  sated  rou6  hoped  to  see 
Him  do  some  miracle  and  questioned  Him  in 
many  words,  He  looked  steadily  on  the  adulterei 
and  answered  Him  not  one  word  (Luke  xxiiv 


22S  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

8-1 1 ),  while  chief  priests  and  scribet,  wholly  ig- 
nored by  Him,  stood  by  vehemently  accusing. 
Yet  once  again,  when  for  the  third  time  Pilate 
took  Him  within  the  palace,  awed  by  the  thought 
that  He  might  perhaps  be  some  messenger  from 
the  Hebrew  Jehovah,  and  earnestly  asked  Him, 
"Whence  art  Thou?  "  He  gave  him  no  answei 
(John  xix.  7-9).  He  had  offered  Himself  to  Pi- 
late as  the  King  of  the  truth,  and  had  been  an- 
swered with  a  sneer  (Johnxviii.  37, 38).  He  had 
told  the  disciples  not  to  waste  their  pearls ;  He 
would  not  waste  His  (Matt.  vii.  6).  Why  was 
Jesus,  the  central  object  in  this  drama,  so  silent? 
Why  did  He  not  offer  some  defense?  He  had 
swayed  the  people  before  with  an  eloquence 
which  the  very  police  of  the  Temple  declared  had 
never  been  equaled.  To  have  pleaded  with  this 
mob  or  in  these  courts  would  have  been  the  mark 
of  a  weak  spirit.  There  was  nothing  for  a  divine 
spirit  to  do  but  be  still  and  look  with  awe  and 
silence  upon  this  death-scene  of  a  nation. 

2.  He  preserved  His  composure  and  dignity  in 
the  midst  of  constant  insult.  When,  acting  in 
accordance  with  proper  procedure,  refusing  to  be 
intimidated,  He  suggested  the  expediency  of  call- 
ing witnesses  at  the  preliminary  hearing  before 
Caiaphas,  He  was  struck  in  the  face  by  one  of 
the  officers,  who  said,  "  Answerest  Thou  the  high 
priest  so?  "  (John  xviii.  22).  Jesus  replied  with 
calm  dignity,  asserting  His  right  to  fair  treatment 
and  paying  no  heed  to  the  high  priest.  He  acted 
as  the  Christ.  In  almost  similar  circumstances 
Paul  showed  how  a  man  would  act  (Acts  xxiii. 
2-5).  When  Pilate,  for  the  last  time,  sought  to 
release  Jesus,  and  expressed  surprise  at  His  re- 
fusal to  speak  to  him  in  view  of  his  power  either 
to  release  or  to  crucify,  Jesus  answered  with  the 


HIS   BEARING   AT   HIS   TRIAL  AND   DEATH       229 

same  dignity  as  before,  making  it  plain  that  it  was 
Pilate  and  the  Jews  who  were  on  trial  before  Him, 
not  He  before  them.  "  Thou  wouldest  have  no 
power  against  Me,  except  it  were  given  thee  from 
above :  therefore  he  that  delivered  Me  unto  thee 
hath  greater  sin"  (John  xix.  lo,  ii).  The  pris- 
oner passed  judgment  on  the  religious  court  where 
He  had  been  tried,  and  the  judgment  of  men 
agrees  with  His  condemnation.  He  indicted  the 
high  priest  who  had  prostituted  spiritual  power  to 
compass  the  death  of  an  innocent  man,  who  had 
missed  the  great  privilege  of  his  office  of  recog- 
nizing the  Messiah  when  He  came,  and  who  had 
surrendered  the  spiritual  independence  of  the 
people  (John  xix.  i6). 

3.  If  Jesus  did  not  speak  much,  wnen  He  did 
speak  it  was  with  unqualifying  plainness.  He  was 
silent  when  He  might  have  spoken  before  Caia- 
phas;  but  when  the  high  priest,  finding  that  no 
testimony  was  available  for  His  condemnation, 
asked  Him  point-blank,  "  Art  Thou  the  Christ?  " 
He  spoke  when  He  might  have  been  silent. 
Openly  and  boldly  He  replied,  "I  am"  (Mark 
xiv.  61,  62) ;  and  He  was  at  once  convicted  on 
His  own  testimony.  Likewise  before  Pilate,  to 
the  question,  "  Art  Thou  the  King  of  the  Jews?  " 
He  gave  practically  the  same  succinct  answer, 
'•I  am"  (Mark  XV.  2). 

4.  He  displayed  no  interest  whatever  in  Pilate's 
efforts  to  release  Him.  He  doubtless  rather  pitied 
the  bullying  weakness  of  the  man.  To  Pilate's 
first  half-kindly  suggestion  that  he  was  prepared 
to  listen  favorably  to  Him,  He  made  no  reply, 
greatly  to  the  astonishment  of  the  governor,  who 
was  not  accustomed  to  such  superiority  (Matt. 
xxvii.  13,  14);  and  He  was  perfectly  passive  to- 
ward Pilate's  repeated  efforts  to  induce  the  Jews 


230  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

to  accept  His  release  (John  xviii.  :^Sj  39 ;  Luke 
xxiii.  20;  John  xix.  4,  12). 

5.  He  bore  Himself  throughout  with  a  simple 
and  unfaltering  majesty.  He  did  not  disavow 
the  title  of  King ;  He  claimed  to  be  "  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  the  Blessed,"  and  He  acted  as  the 
kingly  Christ.  He  rose  supreme  above  the  whole 
scene.  His  kingdom  was  not  of  this  world.  The 
blinded  priests  of  an  insignificant  nation  and  a 
petty  Roman  governor  could  not  destroy  it.  He 
came  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth ;  He  was  satis- 
fied with  this  opportunity  of  fulfilling  His  mission 
(John  xviii.  33-38).  He  said  little,  but  He  said 
enough,  and  no  words  of  His  ever  bore  clearer 
testimony  to  the  truth  or  revealed  more  fully  the 
majesty  of  His  divine  life  than  the  uncomplaining 
patience  and  self-possession  and  composure  of 
His  conduct  under  the  hideous  treatment  to  which 
He  was  subjected,  when,  after  His  condemnation 
before  Caiaphas,  the  men  who  held  Him,  in  the 
pretense  that  He  was  a  dangerous  character,  spit 
in  His  face,  mocked  Him,  and  beat  Him,  and, 
blindfolding  Him,  struck  Him  and  reviled  Him : 
"  Prophesy  unto  us,  Thou  Christ :  who  is  he  that 
struck  Thee?"  (Matt.  xxvi.  67,  68;  Luke  xxii. 
^^3-65);  when  Herod,  with  his  soldiers,  set  Him 
at  naught  and  made  sport  of  Him  and  sent  Him 
back  through  the  streets  of  Jerusalem  arrayed  in 
mock-royal  attire,  and  became  the  friend  of  Pilate 
again  through  this  sport— cursed  be  such  friend- 
ships! (Luke  xxiii.  II,  12);  when,  in  the  hope 
doubtless  of  showing  the  people  how  harmless 
and  inoffensive  He  was,  Pilate  had  Him  arrayed 
in  a  purple  garment  and  crowned  with  a  crown 
of  thorns,  and  stood  Him  before  the  people  with 
the  jeering  remark,  "Behold,  the  man!  "  (John 
xix.  1-5) ;  when,  after  the  surrender  of  Pilate,  the 


HIS   BEARING  AT  HIS  TRIAL  AND  DEATH       23 1 

whole  band  of  the  governor's  soldiers  took  Him, 
stripped  Him,  put  on  Him  a  scarlet  robe,  with  the 
crown  of  acanthus  thorns  still  piercing  His  brow 
and  staining  His  face  crimson  like  His  robe,  and, 
giving  Him  a  reed  for  a  scepter,  played  with  Him 
as  a  mock  king,  spitting  upon  Him  and  seizing 
His  scepter  f^om  His  hand  and  smiting  Him  on 
the  head  with  it,  driving  the  thorns'  cruel  spikes 
deeper  into  His  brow ;  when  at  last  they  led  Him 
away  to  Calvary,  stripped  of  His  robe  but  still 
wearing  His  crown  (Matt,  xxvii.  26-31). 

"Behold,  the  man!  "  was  Pilate's  jeer.  That 
is  what  all  the  ages  have  been  doing  since,  and 
the  vision  has  grown  more  and  more  glorious. 
As  they  have  looked,  the  crown  of  thorns  has 
become  a  crown  of  golden  radiance,  and  the 
cast-off  robe  has  ghstened  like  the  garments  He 
wore  on  the  night  of  the  transfiguration.  Martyrs 
have  smiled  in  the  flames  at  that  vision,  sinners 
have  turned  at  it  to  a  new  life,  little  children  have 
seen  it  and  have  had  awakened  by  it  dim  recol- 
lections of  their  heaven-home,  and  toward  it  the 
souls  of  men  yearn  ever. 

Out  of  all  this  agony  of  abuse  and  injustice 
Jesus  was  led  to  crucifixion.  He  met  death  as 
He  had  met  the  heralds  of  it — hke  a  God  sacri- 
ficing Himself  for  His  people.  Without  complaint 
or  murmur,  with  no  weeping  or  weakening,  with 
composed  dignity.  He  walked  calmly  out  to 
Calvary  and  Calvary's  cross,  and  died  there  for 
men.  "  It  was  visibly  the  death-scene  of  a  tran- 
scendent love.  He  died,  not  as  a  man,  but  rather 
as  some  one  might  who  is  mysteriously  more  and 
higher.  So  thought  aloud  the  hard-faced  soldier : 
'Truly  this  was  the  Son  of  God,'  as  if  he  had 
said,  *  I  have  seen  men  die ;  this  is  not  a  man. 
They  call  Him  Son  of  God ;  can  He  be  less?  '  " 


232  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

There  are  depthless  lessons  here  for  life  and 
faith.  Channing  gives  expression  to  one  of  them : 
"  I  know  not  what  can  be  added  to  heighten  the 
wonder,  reverence,  and  love  which  are  due  to 
Jesus.  When  I  consider  Him  not  only  as  pos- 
sessed with  the  consciousness  of  an  unexampled 
and  unbounded  majesty,  but  as  recognizing  a 
kindred  nature  in  all  human  beings,  and  living 
and  dying  to  raise  them  to  a  participation  of  His 
divine  glories,  and  when  I  see  Him  under  these 
views  allying  Himself  to  men  by  the  tenderest 
ties,  embracing  them  with  a  spirit  of  humanity 
which  no  insult,  injury,  or  pain  could  for  a 
moment  repel  or  overpower,  I  am  filled  with 
wonder  as  well  as  reverence  and  love.  I  feel 
that  this  character  is  not  of  human  invention,  that 
it  was  not  assumed  through  fraud  or  struck  out 
by  enthusiasm ;  for  it  is  infinitely  above  their 
reach"  (Works,  p.  310).  A  deeper  lesson  Paul 
draws:  ''We  thus  judge,  that  one  died  for  all, 
therefore  all  died  ;  and  He  died  for  all,  that  they 
which  live  should  no  longer  hve  unto  themselves, 
but  unto  Him  who  for  their  sakes  died"  (2  Cor. 
V.  i4y  15);  and  Peter,  too,  reverently  stands 
before  this  vision  and  says,  "  Christ  also  suf- 
fered for  you,  leaving  you  an  example,  that  ye 
should  follow  His  steps:  who  did  no  sin, 
neither  was  guile  found  in  His  mouth:  who, 
when  He  was  reviled,  reviled  not  again ;  when 
He  suffered,  threatened  not ;  but  committed 
Himself  to  Him  that  judgeth  righteously  [in 
contrast  with  the  unrighteous  judgments  of  high 
priests  and  Roman  governor] :  who  His  own  self 
bare  our  sins  in  His  body  upon  the  tree,  that  we, 
having  died  unto  sins,  might  hve  unto  righteous- 
ness ;  by  whose  stripes  ye  were  healed  "  ( i  Pet.  ii. 
21-24). 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    MAN 
CHRIST  JESUS 


233 


VII 

THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF   THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

I.  In  Him  there  came,  as  He  Himself  said,  a 
new  life  into  the  world  to  abide  in  it  and  transform 
it.  His  influence  did  not  die  with  His  departure. 
It  began.  As  Rousseau  says :  "  After  the  death  of 
Jesus  Christ  twelve  poor  fishermen  and  artisans 
imdertake  to  instruct  and  convert  the  world. 
The  success  was  prodigious ;  all  the  Christians 
ran  to  martyrdom,  all  the  people  ran  to  baptism. 
The  history  of  these  first  times  was  a  continual 
prodigy."  Those  who  had  been  with  Him  or 
who  believed  they  had  seen  Him  in  heaven  went 
everywhere  proclaiming  Him  (Acts  viii.  4  ;  Rom. 
X.  16-18;  Col.  i.  23).  The  most  powerful  man 
among  them  declared  that  it  was  his  great  am- 
bition to  tell  of  Christ  to  whatever  nations  there 
might  still  be  which  had  not  heard  of  Him  (Rom. 
XV.  20,  21).  And  the  influence  of  Jesus  did  not 
cease  with  these  early  years  when  the  first  out- 
burst of  enthusiasm  had  lost  its  impulse.  The 
attempts  of  men  to  account  for  this  influence  and 
locate  it  in  careful  systems  of  doctrine  changed 
from  generation  to  generation.  The  forms  in 
which  it  manifested  itself  from  age  to  age  differed, 
but  the  hving  Christ  has  changed  only  in  the  en- 
larging human  conception  of  His  meaning.  He 
Himself  is  the  same  yesterday,  to-day,  and  for- 
235 


236  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

ever.  Nothing  has  conquered  Him.  "The  gospel 
possesses,"  said  Napoleon,  "a  secret  virtue,  a 
mysterious  efficacy,  a  warmth  which  penetrates 
and  soothes  the  heart.  .  .  .  The  gospel  is  not  a 
book;  it  is  a  hving  Being  with  a  vigor,  with  a 
power,  which  conquers  everything  that  opposes." 
Almost  all  that  is  great  and  good  Jesus  intro- 
duced into  our  life,  or  it  gained  such  impulse  from 
Him  that  He  is  practically  its  creator  for  us. 
"  The  immense  fund  of  altruistic  feeling  "  which 
He  introduced  Mr.  Kidd  believes  to  be  the  sole 
secret  and  sanction  of  our  civilization  and  progress 
[Social  Evolution,  chap.  vii.).  In  any  event,  it  is 
He  who  is  teaching  men  humility.  In  the  words 
of  the  Church  of  England  collect  for  the  Sun- 
day before  Easter,  "  He  took  upon  Him  our  flesh, 
and  suffered  death  upon  the  cross,  that  all  man- 
kind might  follow  the  example  of  His  great  hu- 
mility." He  has  taught  men  love.  Love  brought 
Him  and  was  revealed  in  Him  (John  m.  16). 
"The  brief  record  of  those  three  short  years," 
says  Lecky,  "has  done  more  to  soften  and 
regenerate  mankind  than  all  the  disquisitions  of 
philosophers,  and  than  all  the  exhortations  of 
moralists."  His  last  command  was  a  command 
to  love  with  such  love  as  He  had  Himself  shown 
for  men  (John  xiii.  34,  35),  "  He  who  stooped 
from  heaven  to  the  humiliations  of  the  cross 
opened  in  the  heart  of  redeemed  man  a  fountain 
of  love  and  compassion."  He  has  taught  men 
purity  and  philanthropy  as  fruits  of  love.  In  the 
Roman  empire  His  influence  checked  licentious- 
ness and  cruel  sports.  Telemachus  in  His  name 
brought  the  gladiatorial  butcheries  to  an  end.  So 
high  was  the  standard  of  life  taught  by  His  dis- 
ciples that  the  very  mention  of  moral  lapse  was 
discouraged  (Eph.  v.  3).    His  influence  brought 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    MAN         237 

in  a  new  legislation  in  favor  of  the  prisoner,  the 
outcast  woman,  the  mutilated,  and  the  poor 
(Brace,  Gesta  Christie  p.  107).  "  For  the  first  time 
the  stern  and  noble  features  of  Roman  law  took 
on  an  unwonted  expression  of  gentle  humanity 
and  sweet  compassion,  under  the  power  of  Him 
who  was  the  brother  of  the  unfortunate  and  the 
sinful."  He  began  the  emancipation  of  the  slave. 
His  followers  became  known  as  "  the  brothers  of 
the  slave."  He  had  said  nothing  about  the  wrong 
of  human  slavery,  but  from  every  word  and  act 
of  His  sprang  the  influences  which  for  centuries 
battled  with  the  supposed  rights  of  man  to  prop- 
erty in  man.  "Through  the  vista  of  history," 
said  Chrysostom,  "  we  see  slavery  and  its  pagan 
theory  of  two  races  fall  before  the  holy  word  of 
Jesus,  'All  men  are  the  children  of  God.'  "  "  We 
owe  the  Church,"  declared  Mazzini,  "  the  idea  of 
the  unity  of  the  human  family,  and  of  the  equahty 
and  emancipation  of  souls." 

"  My  historical  studies,"  said  Mr.  E.  A.  Free- 
man, "  have  made  me  more  and  more  sure  that 
this  thing  which  we  call  Christianity  cannot  be 
human."  And  what  is  Christianity  but  the  in- 
fluence of  Jesus? 

2.  The  life  which  Jesus  brought  He  Himself 
was.  His  influence  in  the  world  has  been  only 
His  self-reahzation.  All  that  He  has  wrought 
was  in  Himself.  He  was  all  that  He  has  done. 
In  Him  all  holy  ideals  meet ;  from  Him  all  holy 
activities  flow.  All  that  we  have  discovered  Jesus 
to  be  in  these  or  other  studies  it  is  God's  purpose 
to  do  in  the  world,  to  make  that  humanity  whose 
Son  and  goal  Jesus  was.  "  The  end  to  which  all 
things  are  working  is  the  production  of  the  spir- 
itual man.  Who  and  what  the  spiritual  man  is 
we  may  not  all  agree  ;  but  I  believe  him  to  be  the 


ijH  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

man  in  whom  God  has  personally  reproduced 
Himself,  and  who  is  therefore  God's  Son;  and 
I  believe  Jesus  Christ  to  be  that  man,  and  I  be- 
lieve Jesus  Christ  to  be  the  revelation  of  the  true 
meaning  and  the  realization  of  the  true  destina- 
tion of  every  man;  and  that  in  Him,  as  the 
personal  incarnation  and  reproduction  of  the 
personal  God  in  our  personal  selves,  we  and  the 
whole  creation  shall  come  into  our  divine  inheri- 
tance" (Du  Bose,  The  Soteriology  of  the  New 
Testament^  p.  171). 

The  most  diverse  types  of  mind  have  recog- 
nized in  Jesus  this  perfect  ideal. 

Niebuhr  says,  "The  feeblest  intellect  must  see 
the  strangeness  of  supposing  that  the  hohest  of 
men  was  a  deceiver.  His  disciples  either  deluded 
or  liars,  and  that  deceivers  should  have  preached 
a  holy  religion  of  which  self-denial  is  the  chief 
duty." 

Strauss  calls  Him  "  the  highest  object  we  can 
possibly  imagine  with  respect  to  religion,  the 
Being  without  whose  presence  in  the  mind  perfect 
piety  is  impossible.  Never  at  any  time  will  it  be 
possible  to  rise  above  Him,  or  to  imagine  any 
one  who  should  ever  be  equal  with  Him." 

De  Wette  says,  "  The  man  who  comes  without 
preconceived  opinions  to  the  life  of  Jesus,  and 
who  yields  himself  up  to  the  impression  which  it 
makes,  will  feel  no  manner  of  doubt  that  He  is 
the  most  exalted  character  and  the  purest  soul 
that  history  presents  to  us.  He  walked  over  the 
earth  like  some  nobler  being  who  scarce  touched 
it  with  His  feet." 

Renan  cried,  "  Between  Thee  and  God  there  is 
no  longer  any  distinction.  The  most  beautiful 
incarnation  of  God— God  in  man! "  And  in  his 
last  book  this  was  his  final  word  about  Jesus: 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    MAN         239 

"  One  fundamental  thesis  to  which  I  cling  more 
firmly  than  ever  is  that  not  only  did  Jesus  exist, 
but  that  He  was  great  and  beautiful,  a  thousand- 
fold more  real  than  insipid  earthly  greatness,  than 
insipid  earthly  beauty." 

John  Stuart  Mill  said,  "  There  is  no  better  rule 
than  so  to  live  that  Christ  would  approve  your 
life." 

Johann  von  Miiller,  a  skeptical  historian,  acci- 
dentally taking  up  the  New  Testament,  and  find- 
ing Christ  the  explanation  of  history,  wrote,  "  In 
all  my  study  of  the  ancient  times  I  have  always, 
felt  the  want  of  something,  and  it  was  not  until 
I  knew  our  Lord  that  all  was  clear  to  me ;  with 
Him  there  is  nothing  that  I  am  not  able  to 
solve." 

As  Browning  says : 


I  say  the  acknowledgment  of  God  in  Christ, 
Accepted  by  the  reason,  solves  for  thee 
All  questions  in  the  earth  and  out  of  it." 


Congreve, "  the  high  priest  of  the  English  Com- 
tists,"  said,  "  The  more  truly  you  serve  Christ, 
the  more  thoroughly  you  mold  yourselves  into 
His  image,  the  more  keen  will  be  your  sympathy 
and  admiration." 

Goethe  called  Him  "  the  divine  man,  the  saint, 
the  type  and  model  of  all  men." 

Schelling  admits,  "  None  before  Him  after  such 
a  manner  has  revealed  to  man  the  infinite." 

Richter  exclaims,  "Being  the  hohest  among 
the  mighty,  and  the  mightiest  among  the  holy. 
He  has  hfted  with  His  pierced  hands  empires  off 
their  hinges,  has  turned  the  stream  of  centuries 
out  of  its  channel,  and  still  governs  the  ages." 

Hennel  says,  "  While  no  human  character  in 


«40  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

-the  history  of  the  world  can  be  brought  to  mind 
Vhich,  in  proportion  as  it  could  be  closely  ex- 
\mined,  did  not  present  some  defects  disqualify- 
Vig  it  for  being  the  emblem  of  moral  perfection, 
We  can  rest  with  least  check  or  sense  of  moral 
incongruity  on  the  imperfectly  known  character 
of  Jesus  of  Nazareth." 

Theodore  Parker  declared,  "He  unites  in  Him- 
self the  sublimest  precepts  and  divinest  practices, 
thus  more  than  realizing  the  dream  of  prophets 
and  sages;  rises  free  from  all  prejudice  of  His 
age,  nation,  or  sect ;  gives  free  range  to  the  Spirit 
of  God  in  His  breast ;  sets  aside  the  law,  sacred 
and  true,  honored  as  it  was,  its  forms,  its  sacri- 
fices, its  Temple,  its  priests ;  puts  away  the  doctors 
of  the  law,  subtle,  irrefragable,  and  pours  out  a 
doctrine  beautiful  as  the  light,  subUme  as  heaven, 
and  true  as  God.  .  .  .  Try  Him  as  we  try  other 
teachers.  They  deliver  their  word,  find  a  few 
waiting  for  the  consolation  who  accept  the  new 
tidings,  follow  the  new  method,  and  soon  go  be- 
yond their  teacher,  though  less  mighty  minds  than 
he.  Though  humble  men,  we  see  what  Socrates 
and  Luther  never  saw.  But  eighteen  centuries 
have  passed  since  the  sun  of  humanity  rose  so 
high  in  Jesus  ;  what  man,  what  sect,  has  mastered 
His  thought,  comprehended  His  method,  and  so 
fully  apphed  it  to  life?  " 

Even  the  Jew  turns  toward  Him.  A  priest  in 
Boston  recently  spoke  of  Him  as  "that  unex- 
ampled Rabbi."  And  Rabbi  Kohler,  in  opening  the 
Jewish  Congress  in  Chicago  in  1893,  exclaimed, 
"  Jesus,  the  keeper  of  the  poor,  the  friend  of  the 
sinner,  the  brother  of  the  sufferer,  the  comfort  of 
the  sorrow-laden,  the  healer  of  the  sick,  the  up- 
lifter  of  the  fallen,  the  lover  of  men,  the  redeemer 
of  women.     We  claim  Him  as  our  own." 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    MAN        241 

Even  Napoleon,  trained  in  a  very  different 
school  from  all  these,  representative  of  a  totally- 
different  temperament,  well  acquainted  with  man 
and  the  character  of  human  influence,  confessed, 
"  Between  Him  and  whoever  else  in  the  world 
there  is  no  possible  term  of  comparison."  "  I  know 
men,  and  Jesus  Christ  is  not  a  man.  Superficial 
minds  see  a  resemblance  between  Christ  and  the 
founders  of  empires  and  the  gods  of  other  reli- 
gions. That  resemblance  does  not  exist.  There 
is  between  Christ  and  all  other  religions  whatso- 
ever the  distance  of  infinity;  from  the  first  day 
to  the  last  He  is  the  same,  always  the  same, 
majestic  and  simple,  infinitely  firm  and  infinitely 
gentle."  "  He  turned  once  at  St.  Helena  to 
Count  Montholon  with  the  inquiry,  *  Can  you  tell 
me  who  Jesus  Christ  was?'  The  question  was 
declined,  and  Napoleon  proceeded,  '  Well,  then, 
I  will  tell  you.  Alexander,  Caesar,  Charlemagne, 
and  I  have  founded  great  empires,  but  upon  what 
did  these  creations  of  our  genius  depend?  Upon 
force!  Jesus  alone  founded  His  empire  upon 
love,  and  to  this  very  day  millions  would  die  for 
Him.  ...  I  think  I  understand  something  of 
human  nature,  and  I  tell  you  all  these  were  men 
and  I  am  a  man.  None  else  is  like  Him.  Jesus 
Christ  was  more  than  a  man.  ...  I  have  in- 
spired multitudes  with  such  a  devotion  that  they 
would  have  died  for  me,  .  .  .  but  to  do  this  it 
was  necessary  that  I  should  be  visibly  present, 
with  the  electric  influences  of  my  looks,  of  my 
words,  of  my  voice.  When  I  saw  men  and  spoke 
to  them  I  Hghted  up  the  flames  of  self-devotion 
in  their  hearts.  .  .  .  Christ  alone  has  succeeded 
in  so  raising  the  mind  of  man  toward  the  unseen 
that  it  becomes  insensible  to  the  barriers  of  time 
and  space.   Across  a  chasm  of  eighteen  hundred 


242  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

years  Jesus  Christ  makes  a  demand  which  is, 
above  all  others,  difficult  to  satisfy.  He  asks 
for  that  which  a  philosopher  may  often  seek  in 
vain  at  the  hands  of  his  friends,  or  a  father  of 
his  children,  or  a  bride  of  her  spouse,  or  a  man 
of  his  brother.  He  asks  for  the  human  heart. 
He  will  have  it  entirely  to  Himself.  He  demands 
it  unconditionally,  and  forthwith  His  demand  is 
granted.  Wonderful!  In  defiance  of  time  and 
space,  the  soul  of  man  with  all  its  powers  becomes 
an  annexation  to  the  empire  of  Christ.  All  who 
sincerely  believe  in  Him  experience  that  remark- 
able supernatural  love  toward  Him.  This  phenom- 
enon is  unaccountable ;  it  is  altogether  beyond  the 
scope  of  man's  creative  powers.  Time,  the  great 
destroyer,  is  powerless  to  extinguish  the  sacred 
flame ;  time  can  neither  exhaust  its  strength  nor 
put  a  limit  to  its  range.  This  it  is  which  strikes 
me  most.  I  have  often  thought  of  it.  This  it  is 
which  proves  to  me  quite  conclusively  the  divinity 
of  Jesus  Christ  "  (quoted  by  Liddon,  The  Divinity 
of  Our  Lord^  p.  1 50). 

3.  The  man  Christ  Jesus  is  one  of  the  strong- 
est evidences  of  the  reliabihty  of  the  Gospels. 
It  would  be  more  irrational  to  suppose  that  four 
unlettered  men,  none  of  whom  had  had  the  ad- 
vantages of  a  formal  education  and  only  one  the 
liberalizing  influences  of  travel,  one  a  tax-gatherer, 
another  the  personal  servant  of  a  retired  fisher- 
man, the  third  a  wandering  physician,  and  the 
fourth  a  man  of  great  native  ability,  but  without 
training  or  what  passed  for  culture  in  his  day, 
could,  with  or  without  connivance,  invent  such  a 
picture  even  from  real  and  trustworthy  sugges- 
tions, than  to  accede  at  once  to  the  truthfulness  of 
their  doctrine  and  the  rehability  of  their  story, 
and  to  believe  in  the  reahty  of  the  Jesus  they 


THE   SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    MAN         243 

depict.     Granted  His  reality,  He  is  the  demon- 
stration of  His  own  deity. 

4.  Why,  then,  do  men  disbelieve  in  Jesus? 
Why  do  they  admire  Him  or  profess  to  accept 
the  truthfulness  of  His  message,  but  refuse  to 
surrender  themselves  to  His  enthusiasm  and 
mastery?  W^hy  did  men  refuse  to  beheve  in 
Him  while  He  was  here?  This  was  the  expla- 
nation of  John  (John  xii.  37-40),  whose  judg- 
ment among  the  disciples  is  the  most  valuable, 
and  who  wrote  his  Gospel  to  show  how  un- 
reasonable unbehef  is  (John  xx.  31):  "Though 
He  had  done  so  many  signs  before  them,  yet  they 
believed  not  on  Him  :  that  the  word  of  Isaiah  the 
prophet  might  be  fulfilled,  which  he  spake. 


Lord,  who  hath  believed  our  report? 

And  to  whom  hath  the  arm  of  the  Lord  been  revealed? 


For  this  cause  they  could  not  believe,  for  that 
Isaiah  said  again, 

He  hath  blinded  their  eyes,  and  he  hardened  their  heart ; 
Lest  they  should  see  with  their  eyes,  and  perceive  with 

their  heart, 
And  should  turn, 
And  I  should  heal  them." 

Isaiah's  discerning  analysis  of  the  ground  of  un- 
belief commended  itself  to  John.  Faith  is  sym- 
pathy ;  it  springs  from  responsiveness  to  the  holy 
and  divine.  Unbehef  is  apathy  ;  it  results  in  the 
atrophy  of  the  capacity  to  respond.  "  Ye  beheve 
not,"  said  Jesus,  "because  ye  are  not  of  My 
sheep.  My  sheep  hear  My  voice,  and  I  know 
them,  and  they  follow  Me"  (John  x.  26,  27). 

Nothing  is  more  fatal  than  sin  to  the  sympathy 
which  is  life.     The  lack  of  such  sympathy  i,s  the 


244  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

fruit  of  sin,  the  sin  of  pride  or  fear  or  self  or 
flesh.  To  convict  the  world  of  this  sin  and  to 
conquer  it  Christ  sent  His  Spirit  after  Him. 
"And  He,  when  He  is  come,"  He  said,  "will 
convict  the  world  of  sin."  Why  ?  "  Of  sin,  because 
they  believe  not  on  Me''  (John  xvi.  8,  9). 

5.  This  was  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  God  of  God, 
light  of  hght,  very  God  of  very  God,  Saviour, 
Redeemer,  Lord,  and  King.  But,  whatever  He 
was.  He  is  meaningless  for  us  save  as  we  enter 
into  our  inheritance  in  Him.  Did  He  give  Himself 
unweariedly  to  the  organization  and  extension  of 
the  kingdom  of  God,  counting  such  work  as  H:*,s 
very  meat  and  drink?  Did  He  hold  to  His  work 
in  the  face  of  the  scorn  and  abuse  of  those  wh,:) 
should  have  been  the  first  to  recognize  the  neiv 
day?  Free  from  all  anxiety  and  care,  did  He 
still  patiently  and  lovingly  bend  to  His  task,  lay- 
ing His  foundations  among  the  lowly  and  the 
poor  wherever  men  were  not  so  wise  as  to  be 
wiser  than  God?  Was  He  charitable  and  gentle, 
sincere  and  simple,  humble  and  unselfish,  gener- 
ous and  forgiving,  tender  and  kindly  and  sym- 
pathetic toward  the  httle  interests  of  human  hfe? 
Did  He  hold  Himself  free  from  all  narrowness 
and  bigotry,  and  free  for  all  service  and  helpful- 
ness? Did  He  treat  every  man,  and,  even  more, 
every  woman,  and  the  leper  and  the  slave  as  the 
children  of  the  Father  whose  rain  falls  alike  on 
the  evil  and  the  good?  Was  He  clean  of  all 
superstition  and  compromise  and  limitation  ?  Did 
He  love  with  a  love  that  failed  not,  and  live  a 
Hfe  which  never  knew  a  stain?  Why?  For  our 
sakes  He  Hved  thus,  leaving  us  an  example,  that 
we  should  follow  in  His  steps ;  and  the  glory  of 
a  perfect  human  character,  that  by  it  we  might 
understand  His  nature.    But  this  is  not  all.    "  The 


THE    SIGNIFICANCE    OF    THE    MAN  245 

inoral  attributes  of  Christ  may  be,  as  I  believe 
they  are,  the  only  open  path  to  a  true  apprecia- 
tion of  His  nature,"  says  Gordon  i^The  Christ  of 
To-day^  p.  58);  "but  it  must  be  affirmed  that 
Christ  is  something  more  than  His  exalted  ethical 
character."  Christ  is  far  more.  If  He  were  only 
this  our  faith  were  vain.  Christ  is  the  world's 
life.  Passing  centuries,  however  many  their 
number,  could  not  erect  an  exalted  ethical  char- 
acter into  the  Christ  of  to-day  and  forever,  and 
the  study  of  that  character  is  largely  profitless 
save  as  it  leads  men  and  nations  to  hear  the  voice 
of  Jesus  as  on  the  last  day,  the  great  day  of  the 
feast.  He  stood  and  cried,  saying,  "  If  any  man 
thirst,  let  him  come  unto  Me,  and  drink.  He 
that  believeth  on  Me,  as  the  Scripture  hath  said, 
out  of  the  depths  of  his  Hfe  shall  pour  torrents  of 
living  water." 


QUESTIONS   FOR    THE   STUDY   OF 
BIBLE    CLASSES 

These  should  be  assigned  in  advance,  and  the 
student  should  be  expected  to  do  original  work 
upon  them. 

1.  What  is  known  of  the  eariy  hfe  of  Jesus? 

2.  What  was  the  significance  of  His  first  visit 
to  Jerusalem? 

3.  What  verse  most  aptly  describes  the  char- 
acter and  spirit  of  the  kingdom  of  God? 

4.  What  was  the  relation  of  this  kingdom  and 
its  claims  to  personal  aspirations  and  relation- 
ships? 

5.  What  was  the  condition  of  admission? 

6.  What  was  the  scope  of  membership? 

7.  To  what  motives  did  Jesus  appeal  in  invir- 
ing  men  to  join  His  kingdom? 

8.  What  provision  did  He  make  for  the  future 
development  of  His  project? 

9.  Is  there  any  evidence  that  He  was  free  from 
anxiety  as  to  its  fate  after  His  death? 

10.  What  was  the  most  original  and  striking 
feature  of  His  plan? 

11.  Wherein  did  the  boldness  of  His  plan 
consist? 

12.  When  did  He  forego  the  opportunity  to 
use  the  people  for  His  political  advantage? 

13.  What  moral  standard  did  He  set  befor^~ 
His  disciples  as  to  conduct  and  speech? 

246 


QUESTIONS    FOR    BIBLE    CLASSES  247 

14.  What  were  His  characteristics  as  a  teacher? 

15.  Give  instances  of  His  exceptional  know- 
ledge of  human  nature. 

16.  What  was  His  attitude  toward  movements 
with  which  He  disagreed? 

17.  What  importance  did  He  attach  to  the  un- 
popularity of  His  doctrine  or  criticisms  upon  it? 

18.  Give  instances  of  His  habit  of  encouraging 
expectations  which  it  would  have  been  disastrous 
if  He  had  been  proved  unable  to  meet. 

19.  What  was  His  attitude  toward  God's  will? 

20.  How  did  He  receive  reproof  or  criticism 
of  His  conduct? 

21.  Was  He  ever  surprised? 

22.  Did  He  ever  modify  any  expressions  of 
judgment  or  opinion  ? 

23.  What  were  the  special  characteristics  of 
each  of  the  twelve  men  He  made  His  closest 
companions? 

24.  What  did  He  call  these  men  collectively 
or  any  of  them  individually? 

25.  Note  the  passages  which  refer  to  His  use 
of  His  eyes  and  hands. 

26.  In  what  ways  did  He  show  Himself  to  be 
an  unselfish  man? 

27.  When  did  His  sincerity  lead  Him  to  make 
replies  which  seem  ungracious? 

28.  Illustrate  His  simplicity. 

29.  When  did  He  forbid  publicity  or  refuse  to 
give  signs? 

30.  Did  He  ever  show  fear?  Was  He  ever 
afraid? 

31.  What  significant  things  did  He  refrain 
from  doing  or  saying? 

32.  How  did  He  treat  His  enemies? 

SS.  What  is  tenderness?  Wherein  did  Jesus 
show  it? 


J^S  THE    MAN    CHRIST   JESUS 

34.  What  special  word  or  treatment  had  H« 
for  the  poor?  for  children?  for  wido^?  for  the 
bereaved? 

35.  What  were  the  elements  and  evidences  of 
Christ's  courage? 

36.  Was  He  a  patient  man  or  impatient? 

37.  Illustrate  His  knowledge  of  the  weather 
and  nature. 

38.  What  traits  of  character  were  combined  in 
Him? 

39.  Was  He  a  happy  man? 

40.  Was  He  a  meek  man? 

4 1 .  When  were  sick  or  disabled  people  brought 
to  Him  to  be  healed? 

42.  When  did  sick  or  disabled  people  come  of 
their  own  accord? 

43.  When  was  He  invited  to  homes  to  heal 
the  sick? 

44.  Did  He  ever  refuse  such  invitations  or 
decline  to  give  help? 

45.  Did  He  ever  give  help  or  healing  un- 
solicited? 

46.  What  is  a  miracle? 

47.  What  friendships  did  He  form  with 
women? 

48.  What  place  have  women  in  His  teaching? 

49.  Did  He  ever  speak  harshly  to  or  pass 
harsh  judgment  upon  a  woman? 

50.  What  was  His  view  of  the  Sabbath? 

51.  Wherein  did  His  conceptions  of  worship 
and  religion  differ  from  the  prevailing  concep- 
tions? 

52.  What  current  opinions  and  practices  did 
He  assail  in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount? 

53.  Was  He  ever  disobeyed? 

54.  Was  He  ever  obeyed  when  obedience 
must  have  been  bhnd? 


QUESTIONS    FOR   BIBLE    CLASSES  249 

55.  What  impressions  did  He  produce  upon 
others  ? 

56.  Could  these  have  been  due  to  deception? 

57.  What  do  we  know  of  Jesus'  relations  to 
:*Iis  own  family? 

58.  What  were  the  steps  in  the  development 
of  Peter's  opinion  of  Jesus? 

59.  How  was  the  faith  of  the  woman  of  Sa- 
maria created? 

60.  What  characteristics  of  friendship  did  Jesus 
illustrate  in  His  friendships? 

61.  Can  a  friendship  die? 

62.  What  is  piety? 

63.  Is  it  separable  from  humility  and  repen- 
tance? 

64.  Did  Jesus  claim  to  be  sinless? 

65.  Did  others  corroborate  His  claim? 

66.  Of  what  emotions  of  Jesus  are  we  told? 

67.  Are  they  normal? 

68.  What  is  your  understanding  of  Gethsemane 
*.nd  of  the  cry  in  Mark  xv.  34? 

69.  Did  Jesus  ever  show  supernatural  know- 
Irdge?     When? 

70.  What  was  His  opinion  of  Himself,  of  His 
origin,  of  His  character,  of  His  work,  of  God 
and  His  relation  to  God? 

71.  What  did  the  Jews  understand  Him  to 
(Jaim  for  Himself? 

72.  What  did  He  have  to  say  of  the  future? 

73.  What  is  prophecy? 

74.  What  were  the  remarkable  features  of  His 
conduct  at  His  trial  and  death? 

75.  State  in  writing  in  fifty  words  your  opinion 
of  Christ, 

76.  State  in  writing  in  fifty  words  His  influence 
upon  you  and  the  circle  of  life  you  see, 

1  I  Printed  in   the    United  States  u/  A  merica 


Princeton 


TheoloqicalSefflfl 


Libraries 


llPraw  Q^210  8959 


Date  Due 

■    l,l,„l„ll,l 

' 

! 

f) 

